Feel Good Drag

Our small group is currently going through 1 John. Reading scripture is always a good thing, but Stephanie always brings something up when she goes over it with us, something I didn't think of when I read it the first time.

Anyway - it was 1 John 5, the passage about "they will know we are Christians by our love."
She said that it was about WANTING to love people instead of just being nice to them out of 'duty'.

This morning a janitor stopped me to talk to me today. She was an ex-Sociology major. I think God has put in her the desire to exhort and encourage people, because she was talking to me about my future and how I needed to use my career as an opportunity to bless others.
I was following her until she started talking about our reward when we give to others.

Her motivations were that it makes us feel good inside. We give to others because we recieve happiness tenfold.

What a sweet woman. But as wonderful as this sounds, I realize it can sometimes distract us.

We should want to serve others because it glorifies God, not just because it makes us feel good.
It's hard to say this, because I know I will be misunderstood, but God should be the center of our affections, and we should be moved to serve and feel good serving, blessing others does give us a feeling of satisfaction, but the reason WHY we do it is because we are called to do so, and we do it out of love for God and a desire to be like Christ.

If you want to be seen as a "good person" then I guess it stops there. Giving because you "get" a good feeling.

But what about when it hurts to serve, when it's a real sacrifice, when God calls you to do something that others misunderstand?
That's when the traps of wanting to "feel good" and be seen as a "good person" will cause us to stumble. I get caught up in those traps all the time and I don't even realize that I'm doing it for my own gain.

Walking with God is a balancing act sometimes.
We can get caught up in sin and feel totally worthless and afraid, and then we can get caught up in self-righteousness.
So yes - we should take joy in serving others. But we do it not for the joy, but to walk in the footsteps of Christ.

And I get so caught up in the philosophy of optimism and staying positive. I realized that I have to keep that out of my Gospel. Even though I think being positive is great, exhortation isn't just the messages of "SMILE" and "Be happy"

I feel like sometimes people try to dress up the Gospel and scripture with other philosophies. Our culture is saturated with appealing things that we don't even realize are unBiblical.

I pray for a spirit of compassion and love, because it is only through the Holy Spirit's power that I can spread light.

Hugs!!