Our Father in heaven wants very much to be an active Father in our lives.

However, He will not control us as though we are puppets.
We hope that the meditations will encourage you to deepen your bonds with Him in this most vital relationship of our lives.

4 - Good Deeds
Matthew 5
15. Don't hide your light! Let it shine for all;
16. let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father.
LB

Have you ever thought that one of the reasons God created you was that the way you live would bring Him glory?

Just as the moon does not generate its own light, but instead reflects the light of the sun, so we are not capable of generating our own light, but it is very possible for us to reflect the light of our heavenly Father.

The first question always is this: what kind of reflectors are we?
The next question is this one:
are we reflecting the light of our Father, or are we making it look as though we are generating our own light.

When we take the credit for our good deeds that glow, are we encouraging others to praise our heavenly Father, or us?

Many times we have such a need to impress others and appear better than we really are, and that attitude takes away from the ability God has given us to reflect His glory.

The way to move forward in life is to find out who you really are and be so secure in that, that giving the glory to God for our good deeds ceases to be an issue, because we do not have that driving need to impress those looking on.

So this command of the Lord Jesus, to let our light shine for everyone to see, is really a test of how secure I am as a person in my own right;
how mature my outlook on life is.

There is a reason why our heavenly Father ought to get the credit for our good deeds. The reason is that these good deeds originated with Him.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 2:
10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
(NKJV)

God prepared these good deeds for us to do before we ever arrived on the scene! That's how much planning He put into your life!
Praise God!

Prayer:
Father, thank You for thinking about me and planning for my life before I even arrived on the scene.
Help me, today and always to fully reflect Your glory in everything I do,
in Jesus' name,
Amen.

See you tomorrow, God willing,
when you'll find a new thought here to challenge you!
Meanwhile, have a great day walking with the Lord!