WILLING AND ABLE

Little Anne was anxious for her birthday to arrive. It was to be a day of celebration filled with presents and a party with her best friends.

One morning before school she asked, “Mom, when’s my birthday? How long before it’s here? You know, how much time do I have to start being good ‘cause you know it’s hard for me to be good.”

How true of all of us!

If we truly want to be good and do good, however, we need to listen to the advice of Paul: “For God is working in you, giving you the power to do what pleases Him.”

To do good we must first be willing to do good. For the Christian doing good is being Christ-like. For some of us it takes a while. We know that our goal is to have an attitude like Christ and act as He did. But what do we do until that happens? Many of us have had that as a goal for years and still have not achieved the results we want: to think and act like Jesus.

Look at it this way: If we are willing, God will enable us to do what He would have us to do. We can read the Gospel message and see what Jesus did and then go into His world and do whatever He did to honor His Father. Willingness always precedes ability. And ability comes from imitation, practice and application.

Prayer:  Lord, sometimes we really try to complicate things to get out of doing them. Truth is, if we want to do good we can do good for You promised to help us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today: For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:13