“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:3-4 seems a little short and simple to study for a full week, but the longer I sit with these two verses, the more I’m finding new troves of treasure in each of them. Truthfully, I find myself focusing on that last part – the Lord giving me the desires of my heart – with much more excitement and passion than I feel in the instructions before those words. I spend so much time chasing a calling or a desire of my heart, that I forget the instructions he has so beautifully laid out before me: Trust in Me. Do good. Dwell in the land. Befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in Me.
I’d love to spend this week together turning our attention to those things and seeing how the Lord transforms and grants us the desires of our hearts when we put things in their right order.
Do Good
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Psalm 37:3
Doing good seems to be a pretty popular thing these days. People get behind causes and organizations they believe in, and everyone likes to know that what they’re investing in is doing more than simply bringing them pleasure.
We need to be constantly learning how to have the heart of Jesus when we are “doing good.” I’m a huge fan of the fair-trade movement. But my reasons for buying things that are fair-trade are more selfish than reflective of the heart of Jesus. It’s trendy; it makes me look like a good person to the rest of the world, and I get some really neat stuff.
In order to have the heart of Jesus we must first learn the heart of Jesus. In Scripture Jesus met needs, plain and simple. He healed people, he fed people, and he taught people. He sent them away with a message and an encounter with hope. He shared His life with others. He had water with the woman at the well and offered her life, and He reclined around tables with people that the religious world rejected and deemed unworthy.
Doing good with the heart of Jesus means that we may find ourselves in some uncomfortable situations, in the midst of someone’s uncomfortable story. Doing good with the heart of Jesus means that we show up – we show up with his love, his hope, and his open arms.
Jesus met needs and loved out of an endless well of supplies from the Father. All of us have the same access to this endless well of love and power. We can all meet needs and do good with who we are right now, what we have right now, and how we’re able to right now. So often we look to the future and talking about “our calling” and we forget that we are called to right now.
There are needs all around you, needs that Jesus sees and has chosen you to meet. There are refugees needing to learn English. There’s a church nursery that needs volunteers. There are people struggling through addiction recovery who need to hear your story. There are students who need someone to keep fighting for them. There’s a cashier who desperately needs to see a smile and hear a kind word.
All around you are opportunities to do good and share life and the heart of Jesus. Don’t lose sight of them!
Chelsey
When we look at the life of Jesus and His ministry here on earth, we see that He always tended to the physical needs of people before He addressed their spiritual needs. You may have heard the saying “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Although we are not doctors, we certainly have resources that can help address the physical needs of those who are hurting around us: love, time, an encouraging word, a warm smile, financial assets, food, etc.