Going About Doing Good

August 29, 2024

By Virginia Brandt Berg

I knelt today where Jesus knelt,
Where all alone He prayed,
The Garden of Gethsemane,
My heart felt unafraid.

I picked my heavy burden up,
And with Him by my side,
I climbed the hill of Calvary,
Where on the cross He died.

I walked today where Jesus walked,
And felt Him close to me.¹

I never think of that song, “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked,” when I don’t think of this verse of Scripture in Acts 10:38: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.” What a wonderful scripture!

I heard a story once, and it was said that the story was true, regarding a newsboy who had been hurt very badly in an accident. Another little newsboy came to see him and asked if he wanted anything. He said, “Yes, I would like for you to go to the bookstore and get me that book about the man that went about everywhere doing good.” He didn’t know just who the man was. So the boy asked the man at the bookstore, and he told him that was the Bible, and Jesus was the one who went about doing good.

So the crippled boy read and read that wonderful Bible. At last, he wanted to do good like Jesus, so he would copy verses of Scripture, and there in the attic room where he lived, he would pull his maimed body over to the window and then drop those verses of Scripture down on the pavement.

One day a very wealthy man saw this scrawny hand reach out from that window and drop a note, and he hurried over and picked it up. On it was this verse of Scripture, about Jesus going about doing good, and how God was with Him. He thought about it a good deal, and he went up and found the little crippled boy. They quickly became friends, and the man gave his heart to the Lord through the boy’s testimony.

Then one day the man came to the boy and said, “I’ve got good news for you. I’m going to take you out of this tenement house, and out to my beautiful home.” And he continued, “You’ll have a room all your own. And we have servants there, and good things to eat. It’ll just be wonderful for you.”

The boy said, “Well, I’ll think it over, Mr. Hatfield. You come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you whether I’ll go or not.” The next day Mr. Hatfield came back. The boy said to him, “I want to ask you a question about your home. Are there any people that walk under the window there where I would be?” And Mr. Hatfield said, “Oh no, it’s very quiet there, with beautiful, terraced lawns. There’s no one that walks under the window.”

Do you know what little Jimmy said? He said, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t live anywhere where people don’t pass under my window.” And he never did go. He stayed in that poor district and in that little room.

How wonderful that there are some people that will make any sacrifice that they might go about doing good, just like Jesus. If we’re going to walk where Jesus walked, we’re going to walk where we can do good for other people. That’s a rather trite saying, but remember the wonderful verse: “He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.”

It reminds me of when someone asked a little boy: “Is your mother at home?”

And he answered, “No.”

“Where is your mother?”

“I don’t know just where she is, but I know that wherever she is, she’s doing good, because she always goes out and helps people.” What a wonderful thing to say.

You know that God’s Word says that whatever you do in word and deed, do all to the glory of God (Colossians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31). While it’s wonderful to be doing good things, we must be very careful that it is for the Lord, and we’re not just depending on our good works.

God’s Word says it’s not of works. These are wonderful verses in Ephesians chapter two. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherein he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ; by grace are ye saved”—not by your works! “And he hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding richness of his grace and his kindness toward us. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:4–9).

Isn’t it wonderful that God has a plan, because it would be so unfair any other way? Some people have had a good background and good parents and they’re just naturally good. Others have had bad backgrounds and wicked parents, and it would be so unfair if it would be our good works that could save us. But God, in the wonders of His wisdom, had a plan in which everybody has to come the same way, and that is through the shed blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on Calvary.

I’ll read it again. “By grace are ye saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.” It’s by the grace of God. So if you’re going to go about doing good things and nice deeds just to get a little glory to yourself, there will be no reward laid by in heaven. It has to be in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s the only way you can be saved. “There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby you can be saved” (Acts 4:12).

God bless you and keep you and make you a blessing. Everywhere you go, may you go about doing good works in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

From a transcript of a Meditation Moments broadcast, adapted. Published on Anchor August 2024. Read by Lenore Welsh.

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