3-2-16 I’m Not Doing This for Me


I have always enjoyed having pets. Each has its own quirks and personality, yet dogs think alike and cats think alike. Take playing fetch, for example. Every cat I have ever owned does not fetch, they tag. Some dogs play tag, but most will bring the toy back to me.

I dog sat a dog that preferred to fetch the toy, but set it down about twenty feet away and nudge it with its nose as if to say, “I did my part, now you do yours.” If I walked toward it, he would grab the toy, run around the yard shaking and tossing it. It took some coaxing, but eventually he would bring it closer – except when he got tired. I sat him down and explained to him that I was not doing this for me. I threw the toy FOR him.

I think James was bringing out that a Christian should not be self-centered but giving. I should not be doing things just for me, I should be doing for others.

Sometimes someone needs a friend. It is natural to become friends with people who have similar interests or are fun, but James is telling me to be friends with someone that needs a friend. I am to be pure, peaceable, gentle, approachable, merciful, good works, without favoritism and two-faced.

The question for me today is: do others see the wisdom that is from above in me.

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” James 3:17-18.

© copyright 2016 Kevin T Boekhoff
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