Remember Me For Good
(Minute Meditation - March 2002)
W
illiam Barclay once said, “Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with a man’s outward circumstance...A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy.”Joy is a feeling we all would like to have, but for most of us moments of joy are elusive and brief. How do we get joy?
An English medical missionary, Wilfred Grenfell, explains, “Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile.” We don’t need things to be happy. We need to be busy, doing something valuable. What sorts of activities are worthwhile and valuable for us to do? Peter tells us, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
We do not have the power to heal, but we do have the opportunity to go “about doing good.” It was the Lord Jesus himself who told us, “And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” So the Lord Jesus demonstrated by his words and by his actions what a worthwhile activity it is to help others.
What is a cup of cold water worth? It is not the cost; it is the thought. Who do we know that needs a cup of cold water today? To be happy we need to stop thinking about what we want or have, and start thinking about who we can help and how. There is someone you know that needs to hear from you, not next week, but today. There is someone who would like to see you, hear your voice, or read your cheery note.
At the judgment seat, what will matter is not what we own but what we did.
Are we now doing something worthwhile that the Lord will remember when we stand before him? It was Nehemiah who said over and over again, “Remember me O my God for good.” Let us decide today to do some good things that will be remembered. We need to realize that the Lord cannot remember the good deeds that we never did. He cannot remember the cups of cold water we never gave, the visit to the sick we did not make, the clothes for the poor that still hang in our closet.
The good that we do now has double benefits. It gives us true joy and happiness in this life right now, and, when Jesus returns, will be remembered by our Lord when we have to answer to him for what we have done whether it be good or bad. The good that counts has to be done to or for somebody not to some thing. Being good to your home or car may make it look or run better but that doesn’t count to our Lord. What counts is the good we have done to others and for others.
Wake up. Think who needs help and be there. In Esther we read how the Jews celebrated by turning “sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.” Their happiness was multiplied by sharing their joy with others. Let us develop true joy in our lives by living to serve the needs of others. Then we will feel the joy for when “joy shared is joy made double.”
“Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile.” By doing those worthwhile things, with Nehemiah we can then say, “Remember me, O my God, for good.”
Robert J. Lloyd