Weary of Goodness

 By: Grace Metzger

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

My church has been focusing on Galatians lately, an amazing book of the Bible. Because of this I’ve also been spending my a lot of time in Galatians as well. While reading this last week, the above verse stood out to me. The reason it spoke to me, to be very blunt, is that I have become very weary and worn down with the thought of constantly trying to do the good thing. It started to sound exhausting to me. I know that sounds bad, but I didn’t want to put in the extra effort and was ready to stop focusing on being a kind, good follower of Christ, and instead do things the easiest way.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So I dug into more about good works. To I’m sure no one’s surprise, there were plenty of verses to choose from on doing good works. 1 Timothy says that we should be rich in good works. The definition of rich means plentiful or abundant. By having so much kindness, gentleness, self control, and goodness in your heart that it causes you to have an abundance of good works. 

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This brought me to my next question, what does the Bible even mean when it talks about good works? How are we expected to have an abundance of something that we don’t even know what it entails? I wish I could give you an easy short answer, an answer like serve in ministry then you’re fine. However that’s not the case, the more I looked into this and the more I thought about it I realized that there wasn’t one thing that defines what God means by good works. Isaiah 1:17 gives us some great examples like seeking justice, correcting oppression, caring for the orphans and widows. But I don’t believe we’re limited to that list of things.

God is calling us to do good works. That might look different for each of us. God might be calling you to mow your elderly neighbors lawn, I however don’t know how to work a lawnmower so I don’t know if that is what God is calling me to do. Or maybe God is calling you to be kind to that one person who has no friends. Whatever He’s calling us to do, He’s doing it because we are going to be reaping the rewards of our good works one day, whether that’s a new unexpected friend or maybe it’s reaping the reward in Heaven. 

Whatever our reward might be, take heart in knowing that it might not be as easy but doing the good and right thing has so many more benefits then taking the easy way out.