Accidentally Good?
ACCIDENTALLY GOOD?
Read Philippians 2:5-9.
“Look, Dad!” Javier exclaimed one afternoon. “Sonny’s playing dead, just like I taught him.”
Dad laughed. “I think he’s just resting,” he said. “Let’s go for a walk and teach him to heel.”
The dog plodded along willingly at first. Then he began to strain at the leash. Javier scolded and tugged, but the dog didn’t pay any attention. Suddenly Sonny turned and ran in the direction Javier had been pulling. “He’s minding me now!” Javier called.
Then Sonny came to a trash can and stopped to sniff. Javier couldn’t get him to budge.
“I don’t get it,” moaned Javier. “Sometimes Sonny minds me, and sometimes he doesn’t.”
Dad remarked, “Sometimes he just happens to want the same thing you do.”
“You mean he’s accidentally good?” asked Javier.
“You could say that.” Dad showed Javier how to direct the dog, giving the leash a firm jerk when Sonny went the wrong way.
“You know, people often behave the way Sonny did,” observed Dad. “When they’re in a good mood, they are kind. When they feel like it, they go to church. When they feel generous, they give money or time. But that’s not really obeying God. The true test of obedience is how we act when we don’t feel like obeying.”
“I get it,” Javier replied as he jerked the leash. “I’ll try to remember that. I don’t want to be just accidentally good.”
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Do you think it’s enough to obey God’s commandments when you feel like it? That’s not obeying. It’s doing what you want to do. You need to follow Jesus’ example. He became a servant and “humbled himself in obedience . . . and died a criminal’s death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). You need to obey God no matter how you feel or what it might cost you.
TO MEMORIZE:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24
OBEY GOD ALWAYS.
From the book
