Tuesday, January 17, 2023
If you are a child of God, do you want to do something for God? However, what can you possibly do for Him? Does God need your help? Can’t God do everything by Himself?
What can you possibly do that will ever make a real difference? Do you think about working for God and what does that really mean? Do you have to be a teacher, preacher, or missionary? No! There are many ways in which one can do something for God.
Many people go on mission trips to “convert” people regarding Jesus and that is a good thing. So many people are excellent at doing that. There are many good pastors and teachers as well that devote their life to teaching about Jesus. Of course, that is a good thing.
But what if none of that is you? What does it mean then to do something for God?
We are promised that through Christ we will “bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
We are urged to “live for him who … died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
We are called to “work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men” (Colossians 3:23).
Is God needy or something? Of course not! However, when we talk about helping someone, we really are talking about doing something for them, or filling a need they might have. We try to help them in some way. It is like helping someone who is hungry…you help feed them, or if they are homeless and you can help even get them into a shelter or someplace safe, If someone lost what they had from, say a storm, and you can help…you go and help. You do whatever you can to make someone’s life a bit easier for them. You don’t do it grudgingly, but willingly and out of love for them and their need. You do whatever you do in humility!
So, what does it mean to do something for God? What does He need? What possibly could He need from you? God has no needs!
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25)
God is the creator, and He is self-sufficient. God is good and there is none like Him. He is perfect in all His ways. So, think about this for a moment then: Doing something for God cannot mean doing something to meet God’s needs.
Well, the best place to find answers as to what this means to you is to pray and to search scriptures to see then just how you can do something for God, and what that would entail. In the Bible, there is a verse that brings a little bit of light to this topic. It is found in Colossians 3:23-24. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…
Well, that is a great clue as to what you can do for God…whatever you do in life, do it as unto the Lord and not unto man.
Well, the next verse (24) has another part of the answer: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
To do something for the Lord means we do it knowingly and when we do it knowingly for the Lord that we will receive the reward of the inheritance. Whoa! How wonderful is that promise? I want that. I want the reward of the inheritance. Don’t you?
So then because of those two verses, it means here that to do something for the Lord you are not doing something because it will help God out for He has no needs, but that whatever it is you do…you will receive the reward, at some point, from God.
The inheritance talked about is the reward of one day spending eternity with Him forever. I’ll take that one. That is a wonderful promise. Whatever we do because we are doing it as to the Lord, and not to please mankind…then we are pleasing our God, and when we please our God by doing things that help others out of love and not out of duty or being forced to…then one day we will see our reward happen.
Take an athlete on a team: They go out and do their best to win whatever sport it is. They pull together as a team and play to win. Yes, the other team can be an excellent team and they are playing as well to win. We all want to win at what we do, but play fair, play hard, do your part of the job on the team, and when you win…you get the reward of that win.
There is nothing on this earth we can ever do that meets a need of God Almighty for He has no needs and He can meet whatever so-called need people think He might have. He created everything do you really think He can’t meet, make, or create whatever He wants?
These two verses we just talked about should change how you see what to do to please God. Our obedience in life to God changes everything. I think then on this subject and when we do something that pleases God then shouldn’t we think that He is pleased with us for doing right…but know this doing right in life is a choice, and doing right in life is our duty to do. We are always supposed to choose to do right.
Now, think about this. We do something out of love and obedience to Him. What do we think we should get for doing right? I can’t give Him anything but me and my obedience and love, but He gives me everything I need, and one day…He will take his obedient ones across that finish line into victory. He is the one who gives my soul joy to do, to overcome, and strength to do “whatever” it might be.
God looks are motives for what we do in life. Whom are we trying to please? Who are we doing something for anyway? To look good to others, or to be obedient to God? God wants us to have a humble heart, joy in our soul when we do things. We don’t get that joy if we are doing it grudgingly. When my motives for doing are right then I am not doing something to impress someone or to be seen by someone…I am doing something because it is the right thing to do.
So what could possibly be the “thing” God is talking about? Whatever you do…doit unto the Lord. Someone on earth might think your job is nothing in their eyes, but it is not them that you should be doing it for…but you should be doing whatever it is for God. Think of what God has called you to do — like lead a small group, wash the dishes, share the Gospel, or make a sales call, help your neighbor, help someone with a chore, help someone at the store…whatever you do…listen carefully….do it as though you were doing it unto the Lord.
So try this. See what happens in your heart when you prayerfully and meaningfully say —
- I’m going to do_____________ for the reward of joy in the Lord. Not to please anyone else, but I want to do what is right and I want to do it with the best of motives.
Here are some Bible verses that you might also want to study to see what you can do for the Lord. They all do not take in this subject directly, but they are good verses that can help you.
Proverbs 19:21
Many plans are in a man’s heart,
But the counsel of the Lord will stand.
Psalm 54:5
He will recompense the evil to my foes;
Destroy them in Your faithfulness.
Proverbs 16:3
Commit your works to the Lord
And your plans will be established.
Job 42:2
“I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Acts 2:23
this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
Proverbs 16:9
The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:1
The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
Jeremiah 11:18
Moreover, the Lord made it known to me and I knew it;
Then You showed me their deeds.
Psalm 40:5
Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.
Isaiah 55:8
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
1 Corinthians 2:11
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
Ecclesiastes 8:17
and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.
James 4:13
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
1 Corinthians 2:7
but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
Hebrews 11:40
because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
Job 36:26
“Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;
The number of His years is unsearchable.
Psalm 18:30
As for God, His way is blameless;
The word of the Lord is tried;
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
Psalm 21:11
Though they intended evil against You
And devised a plot,
They will not succeed.
Ephesians 1:10
with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him
Ephesians 1:11
also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
Ezekiel 38:10
‘Thus says the Lord God, “It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan,
Psalm 94:11
The Lord knows the thoughts of man,
That they are a mere breath.
James 4:15
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
Psalm 33:11
The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
Jeremiah 10:23
I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself,
Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
1 Corinthians 12:18
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
Psalm 140:8
“Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
Do not promote his evil device, that they not be exalted. Selah.
Isaiah 46:10
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure
Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom and no understanding
And no counsel against the Lord.
Isaiah 55:9
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
John 1:13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jeremiah 18:12
But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
Proverbs 16:4
The Lord has made everything for its own purpose,
Even the wicked for the day of evil.
Jeremiah 26:13
Now therefore amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will change His mind about the misfortune which He has pronounced against you.
Acts 4:28
to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
Isaiah 14:27
For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
1 Corinthians 2:5
so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
1 Peter 1:20
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
1 Corinthians 2:10
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
Colossians 1:27
to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
God’s Plans
Job 42:2
“I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Trusting God’s Plan
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Now may God, the creator, bless you, keep you, draw you, help you, and give you His peace.
God bless you!