Doing Things That Have Been Done Before - One Year Devotions for Women

Having carefully investigated all of these accounts from the beginning, I have decided to write a careful summary for you. - Luke 1:3

The fact that others had written the story of Jesus and the Good News did not hinder Luke from taking up the pen. He acknowledged the fact that “many people have written accounts about the events that took place among us” (Luke 1:1), but Luke also decided to write.

Sometimes we become stagnant because others seem to be doing all the work. Why offer to teach Sunday school if there are plenty of teachers? Why join the choir when it has a full contingent of sopranos? Why write a book when others have written before us? Why visit the sick when there’s a committee appointed to do all that?

The answer to the “why” is found here. Luke knew others had written, but he decided to also do so. What others do is their business; what I do is mine. We need to find the goodwill of God for our lives and to do it cheerfully. Jesus said to God, “I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do” (John 17:4), and then he went home to heaven. We must do the same; whether others have taught, sung, written, or visited the sick before us is really quite irrelevant. We must seek God’s face, discover our gifts, and do his will with all our might. When it seems good to me, and I sense his direction, I go ahead and leave the rest to him.

For Further Study: Luke 1:1-14

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

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