When Mary, the sister of Martha, poured a box of very precious ointment of spikenard upon the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, we read that Judas Iscariot complained about the waste. Jesus’ reply was, “Let her alone… She hath done what she could.”
Our Lord does not ask any of us to do more than we can, but he also does expect us to do what we can. We are all different people and we all have different kinds of talents, but each of us can do something. At the judgment seat the Lord will ask us about things we did or did not do during our lifetime — whether we did what we could. What will we say?
Someone may ask, what about those who have physical disabilities? There is always one thing each of us is able to do every day regardless of our age or physical condition. We can pray. Prayer is a wonderful gift God has given us, the opportunity to talk directly to our Creator and address Him as “our Father,” and He wants us to pray to Him.
Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, and James assures us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much. Paul counsels the believers in Philippi, saying, “Don’t worry over anything whatever. Tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which surpasses human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.”
What a wonderful way to live! Not only is prayer something every one of us is able to do, but the peace of God will fill our hearts and we will be able to rest in our Lord. Are we praying regularly?
What else should we be doing in additional to praying? Each of us can do something more to serve our God every day, even though we each have different abilities. The prophet Micah tells us, “and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
To walk humbly with our God, means we have to get up and get going, moving our feet while asking God to guide us. He cannot guide our feet if we just sit around all day. We need to travel in God’s direction, as the wise man Solomon explains, “Trust in the LORD with all your hearts and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” We need to find a path, a godly path, to serve our God in our daily life. Even if we are bedridden or in a wheelchair, we can figuratively move our feet as we look for ways to serve our God. Most of us can manage cards, letters or phone calls to give encouragement to others who are lonely or stressed or in need. Paul, under house arrest in Rome and not able to move around freely, preached to all he came in contact with, wrote letters to distant ecclesias, and even converted some in Caesar’s household.
Brethren and sisters confined to the hospital have preached to their doctors, nurses, roommates and visitors. Surely those of us in better health can do more.
God knows all about us, even to how many hairs we have, which for some of us is not many, but still it is more than we know. He knows what we can do, and He expects each of us to do that. We should not limit ourselves. We need to ask our Heavenly Father to guide us and then get moving, looking for something we can do and then doing what we believe He wants us to do.
Micah also tells us we must be just in all our dealings with others and we must be merciful. We are told that we will be shown as much mercy by the Lord as we have shown to those we deal with. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask for our sins to be forgiven as we have forgiven others. Based on these criteria there are some who will receive little or no mercy because that is how they have treated others. Even when we are in the right and others are wrong, those in the wrong are also God’s children that we can try to help, knowing that God is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance. James tells us: “He who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.”
Another point Micah makes is humility; we are to walk humbly. If God is doing the guiding of our feet, we know we will walk humbly for we cannot take credit for the way God is guiding them. After all, we have asked Him to direct our steps, so how can we be proud of where He is taking us? Paul tells us, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” We need to give our best effort to our work for the Lord, but recognize that the outcome is the Lord’s, and to God be the glory.
Doing what we can may change over time. Certainly what many of us are able to do now is not the same as it was years before; the years go by, and our strength and capacity for work may seem so much less than what they were 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago, but still there is something we can do. After turning our life over to God in prayer and asking Him to direct our steps, we will discover that we will be able to do “what we can” for Him. And it will be something. It cannot be doing nothing, for God will be directing us to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly before Him.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One