Posts Tagged: Hebrews 13:16

“Pleasing God: Sharing What You Have”

On October 22, 2022 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“15 Through him [i.e., Jesus] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hebrews 13:15-16, English Standard Version)

In yesterday’s post (), I wrote about the sacrifice of praise (vs. 15). Today, I am going to take a quick look at vs. 16 and sharing what you have.

Almost all of us have something that we could share with others. Money? Well yes, that of course. And we do have some money. Like everybody else, I like to complain about inflation. I do this along with my fellow-complainers while we are in line at restaurants.

Oops! I guess that indicates that I am contributing to inflation myself. It also indicates that I can probably share some of my wealth.

But helping others financially, as important as it is, is just one expression of the larger matter of doing good. Doing good is mentioned first. It has become a term of contempt to call someone “a do-gooder”. I wonder if that doesn’t say something quite disturbing about our society. Since when did doing good become a bad thing to do?

There are probably thousands of ways to do good. I remember a lady that I didn’t know at all gave me a smile one time when I had a raging headache. It was a tremendous act of kindness to be, though she never knew.

A kind word, a nice home-cooked meal, a small bouquet of flowers, a card that doesn’t even have to be an expensive Hallmark card—these and many more can be forms of doing good. One of the ladies at our church, Betty, prays for everybody and their dog—literally! John, another guy at our church, is always ready to greet someone at the door or to offer an umbrella on a rainy day. When the executive minister of our church found out that my wife and I had covid, she was immediately asking what she could do to help. In addition to being our executive minister, she is a wife and a mom of several little ones. Her kind offer was help enough. I have friends who do good by having listening ears and non-judgmental spirits.

The list goes on, but I will not. Each of us needs to make our own lists.

John Wesley, the father of Methodism, said it this way:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

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