Tag Archives: doing the right thing

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Joyce Meyer – All Things Work Together for Good

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We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. —Romans 8:28

When God speaks to us and we obey, we do so by faith. We often have no circumstance in the natural realm to let us know whether we are doing the right thing or the wrong thing. This is how faith works. We have to step out believing, not knowing in the natural sense, that we are following God. We have to act, believing we have heard His voice. Experience with God is a great teacher and often we will never know if we were right or not unless we “step out and find out.”

Sometimes we may be wrong. We might make a mistake. That thought can be frightening, so we often think, It is better to be safe than sorry. But if we do that, we will soon be miserable if God has truly told us to move forward. Not only will we be miserable, but we will live boring, uneventful lives. We hunger for adventure, but fear will keep us from ever knowing the joy of it.

I have discovered that if our hearts are right and we do the best we know to do in our journey of learning to hear from God, He will honor our efforts and steps of obedience. If we move in childlike trust to obey what we believe in our hearts He has told us to do, then even if we don’t do everything exactly right, God will make even our mistakes work for our good.

God’s word for you today: God is working everything out for your good.

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Joyce Meyer – First, Do What Is Right

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Invoke blessings upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you, implore God’s blessing (favor) upon those who abuse you [who revile, reproach, disparage, and high-handedly misuse you]. —Luke 6:28

When we make a decision to forgive, we probably won’t feel like forgiving. After all, we have been treated unjustly, and it hurts. But doing the right thing while we feel wronged is extremely important to our overall spiritual growth. It also glorifies God.

For many years I tried to forgive people when they hurt or offended me, but since I still had negative feelings toward them, I assumed I wasn’t successful in the forgiveness journey. Now I realize that no matter how I feel, if I keep praying for the person who injured me and bless rather than curse him or her, I am on my way to freedom from destructive emotion. To curse means to speak evil of, and to bless means to speak well of. When someone has hurt us, we can refuse to speak evil of them, even if we’re tempted to do so. We can also bless them by talking about their good qualities and the good things they have done. If we look only at the mistakes people make, we won’t be able to like them. But looking at their whole lives gives us a more balanced picture of them.

You cannot wait to forgive someone who hurt you until you feel warm and loving toward that person. You’ll probably have to do it while you are still hurting—when forgiving is the last thing you feel like doing—but doing it puts you in the “God league.” It puts you squarely on the road that is “narrow (contracted by pressure),” but leads to the way of life (see Matt. 7:14). It puts you on the road that Jesus Himself traveled on. Don’t forget that one of the last things He did was forgive someone who didn’t deserve forgiveness, and He did it while hanging on a cross being crucified (see Luke 23:43). I think some of the last things that Jesus did were specially designed to help us remember how important those things are.

Trust in Him: You may want to feel better first, but God wants you to do what is right first, which is to forgive. When you do, you are putting your trust in God.