February 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"He went about doing good" (Acts 10:38).

Devotional

I would earnestly endeavor to impress upon you, dear reader, what Henry Martyn beautifully terms "the pleasure of doing good." Next to direct communion with God, the loftiest and purest source of enjoyment open to us on earth is found in showing human compassion, in exercising Christian love. No selfish pleasure ever brought the peace, the joy, the happiness which one solitary act of kindness to another did.

God is happy in the exercise of his infinite love. Angels are happy in the discharge of their beneficent mission. And we are happy as our affections and sympathies search out objects upon which they may rest. Oh! the luxury of erasing one sorrow from the heart, one shadow from the brow, one tear from the eye. It is in this living for the good of others, especially in seeking their spiritual and eternal happiness, that we have found a most powerful means of advancing vital godliness in our own souls.

The reason the religion of many of the Lord's people is sickly and feeble, cold and gloomy, is precisely because it is so selfish. Would you be more dynamic in your soul? Would you make greater progress in your walk with God? Would you more successfully combat the many doubts and fears that assail you? Would you have a happier, sunnier religion, walking more fully in the light of the Lord's countenance? Then be up and doing in your Lord's vineyard. Seek the conversion of lost sinners. Seek the comfort of poor saints. Seek the relief of human misery in some of its many forms. Thus, like your Master, go about doing good, and then you will be fulfilled as your soul happily experiences the precious promise: "You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways" (Isa. 64:5).

O God of mercy, God of might,
in love and pity infinite,
teach us, as ever in thy sight,
to live our life to thee.

And thou who cam'st on earth to die,
that fallen man might live thereby,
O hear us, for to thee we cry
in hope, O Lord, to thee.

Teach us the lesson thou hast taught,
to feel for those thy blood hath bought;
that ev'ry word and deed and thought
may work a work for thee.

For they are brethren, far and wide,
since thou, O Lord, for them hast died;
then teach us, whatsoe'er betide,
to love them all in thee.

In sickness, sorrow, want, or care,
whate'er it be, 'tis ours to share;
may we, when help is needed, there
give help as unto thee.

(Godfrey Thring, 1877)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.