Daily Devotionals

Devotional: July 17th

"Be not weary in well-doing." - 2 Thessalonians 3:13.

This is said to the well-doer. To one even who is no novice in well-doing; but has been some time engaged in deeds of beneficence. You have begun well; you have gone on well; but persevere. It may be that your kindness is not appreciated; that your self-denial for the sake of others is even ridiculed; that your motives are misrepresented; and that the more you love, the less you are loved. But your well-doing is not well doing if it be gone about chiefly for the sake of man’s appreciation. He doeth well whose labors of love are amply rewarded by the smile of God. There was a time when you were not weary in seeking your own ease, pleasure, or advantage. Should you labor longer or more cheerfully for that solitary sinner, than for a world of unhappy ones around you?

Consider that Christ was not weary in well-doing, though his love was exhibited under the most adverse circumstances imaginable. Perhaps you may find on reflection that he has been remarkably persevering in his efforts to do good to you. Did you ever go to the door of some poor miserable degraded being, and knock and knock; and when driven from the door by a shower of reproaches, return at the first opportunity and knock and knock; and being again thrust back with your undesired gifts, still return and endeavor to gain admission? Hardly. But has there not been some such persistency as this on the part of Christ, in his efforts to recover you from the degradation of sin and the darkness of unbelief? God makes his sun to rise and run his daily course through the skies that you may be lighted along the path of duty; but how often does that sun arise and pour his deluge of light around you, with out any other thoughts arising in your own mind than such as relate to your own pleasure. The marvel is that God should not be weary of doing good to such a one. When you are ready to get weary of your paltry beneficences, think that you are suggesting to God that it is not worth while to continue blessing the race to which you belong.

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