1 John 3:18-20 “Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.”
2020 is an election year and all over the world, poiticians are making promises…and all over the world, opposing political parties are pointing out all the ways that those promises have already been broken or are remaining unfulfilled. One cynic was heard to say, “How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving!”
Many churches have fund – raising events during which people make pledges. But when the time comes for those pledges to be fulfilled, the same people that made such a big show at the beginning are nowhere to be found. (And all the pastors said, “AMEN!”)
During Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem, when he was teaching on the steps of the temple, he told a story recorded in Matthew 21:28- 32 “But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first one and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. Then the man went to the second son and told him the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he said. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” “The first, ” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in a righteous way and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
Jesus had no patience with professionally religious people who only talked but who did not live out their faith. Matthew 23 records Jesus’s rebukes to these people. Jesus called them “blind guides,””hypocrites,””whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones.”
But are actions enough? No. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body,a but have not love, I gain nothing.”
How do we know when we have done enough? We don’t. But God keeps the records. Left to ourselves, some of us will wear ourselves out, always worrying that we aren’t doing enough good deeds. That is why John mentions our hearts condemning us. But no amount of good deeds will help us earn our way into heaven. Even when we are doing the very best we can, our motives are still mixed. This is why Jesus came to die for us and this is why we must listen to the Holy Spirit.
If we will pray and ask God to guide us, He will show us those whom we are supposed to help and those whose needs are to be met by someone else. There is nothing wrong with praying about every need that comes to your attention, but you are not God. Only God can meet all the needs of His people. Your job is to channel the resources God has given you into the needs He wants you to meet. But part of your job is also to rest in the Lord. If you fail to rest in the Lord, you will have big problems hearing His Voice because the clamor of the urgent will be howling in your spiritual ears.
We can take comfort in the last statement: “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.” God is a good parent and knows us better than we know ourselves. Good parents do not reproach their toddlers for failing to behave like teenagers.
Let us turn our hearts to our loving Heavenly Father and pray.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for loving us and for sending Jesus to die for our sins. Help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. Help us to listen for your leading, that we will help those you want us to help. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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