Being Prepared for Every Good Work

Last night I was reading in Titus 3, where Paul was giving Titus instructions on dealing with certain issues in the church. When I ran across the statement, "be prepared for every good work," I got to thinking, how are we to prepare?

For starters, we have to be in the Word daily and praying to the Lord. Joshua 1:8 states that we shall "meditate on it day and night, so that you are careful to do all that is written in it." Psalm 119:48 says, "I will lift my hands up toward your commandments, which I love and I will meditate on your statutes." To love God's commandments to us, we have to ask to Spirit to change our attitudes towards others. Have you not been in a certain mood when you get up that if you were confronted by someone that needed compassion, you would say, "not today! I don't have time for it." Even with worship on Sunday mornings we must fight against an attitude which says, "well, I've been pretty good about going, I'm tired today, I think I'll skip today--I'll be there next Sunday."

From the moment that our feet hit the ground in the morning, we have to pray to God that He will help us to serve others (a certain song comes to mind from Audio Adrenline, called This Day). Even as Christians, we must fight against our flesh that is self-centered and self-serving. My former pastor once told me that the opposite of this is finding your happiness in someone else's happiness, and this is most applicable in marriage--if both people in a marriage do this, their bond will grow stronger.

Now an objection will be raised, "hey, I'm saved by grace--you make it sound like these works are a requirement." The answer to both questions is yes and yes--God did call us by His grace to faith in Christ, justifying us by Christ's blood. But the next question is what did He call us to? A life that is closed off from others, a life that is comfortable where we only interact with other Christians? In James 2 and 3 where James, the brother of Jesus, writes about a hypothetical person showing him (James) that he has faith, but James has works, James is NOT saying that works are more important than faith but rather they are an outflow of the saving grace of Christ. This is why he indicated that faith without works is dead--a faith that has no desire to do such things, to share the grace that Christ has given, is not alive and perhaps not faith at all. In being born again, we are transformed in our innermost desires--we go from wanting to SIN all the time, to wanting to serve God (though the action can sometimes be long in following--Paul mentions this in Romans 7:15-19).

The natural consequence of true, genuine faith is a desire to do the works that Titus 3 is talking about--having a spirit of readiness to do good works that proclaim the grace and glory of God is all that is needed. (This means that once this post is read, it does not mean we are to instantly run out and DO as much good as we can--we pray that the Spirit would work on our hearts) There is no special skill set that the Bible speaks of that enables someone to do these works, but it only calls us to rely on Him. Please don't misunderstand--this does mean a requirement of serving on every committee at church as a matter of Christian duty. Overcommitting yourself for the cause of Christ to the detriment of your relationships, even to your personal time with God does not serve Him well at all.

I work in a building across from a shopping center, and I was going to get a bite to eat at a KFC in that center this past week, and God in His providence had me delay until a certain time, and I was able to help an elderly couple get their son, a 6 foot 6 war veteran who was quite disabled, back into their car. Did it take a little time out of my day? Sure it did. But these are the kind of opportunities that are out there that God can use to share His gospel--as fallen as the world is, even non-Christians can be surprised when someone does something good for them. When they ask why you did it, you state that Christ first showed you love and grace, and that He is the reason for your act.

So, read the Word, meditate on it, and pray that God will help you to be prepared for good works when the opportunity arises, giving you a humble and compassionate attitude. You may be the means of grace God intends to use in someone's life today. These acts in and of themselves do not save--but they are apart of our sanctification. God is gracious in giving us these opportunities by removing selfish attitudes and tendencies through these good works towards others.

Lord, help us to be more aware of the those who have needs around us.