How to Ignite Our Passion for Doing Good

Doing good for others is an integral part of our relationship with God and essential to helping other people know him (Matthew 5:14-16). However, sustaining our efforts requires motivation, and it’s easy to get distracted from doing good.

When we need to rekindle our passion for serving others, this devotional will inspire and renew our motivation from within.

Doing good comes from gratitude for God.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 NIV

Igniting our passion for doing good begins with our gratitude for and experience of God’s grace. In the verse above, Paul paints a simple yet powerful picture of God’s love for us: When we were at our worst, God gave us his very best. This is what the Bible describes as grace—God not only forgiving our sins but also doing good for us in ways we don’t deserve. 

Our gratitude for the grace of God will make us eager to do good:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,  who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:11-14 NIV84

According to Titus 2, grace is a teacher — it’s not just something we are meant to passively accept, but something we actively learn from and respond to. If we let it, grace can change the way we interact with the world, how we think about God, and what we decide is important. Saying no to worldly passions means saying no to gaining security from achievement (1 John 2:16) rather than attachment. It means saying no to comparing ourselves to and competing with people rather than respecting and admiring them (James 3:13-17). It means saying no to perfecting our outer appearance while ignoring our heart condition (1 Samuel 16:7). It means saying no to defining our own truth rather than accepting God’s truth. 

Our gratitude for God’s grace helps us to reject what the world is selling us and live differently—eager to do what is good in the same way God does good for us.

Doing good comes from our trust in God.

You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” [8] And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 
[10] For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. [11] Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.  

2 Corinthians 9:7-8, 10-11 NLT

God promises to provide all that we need so that we can give cheerfully to others. At times, we will go through challenges in life that make us feel like we don’t have the resources to do good for others. Weary from our personal battles and stressed by our limitations, we might feel reluctant to give.

In these moments, we need to remember that God is able to generously provide everything we need, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually too. We can trust him to take care of us and provide for us; he doesn’t want us to suffer so that others can have plenty (2 Corinthians 8:13-14). Secure in God’s care for us, we can give cheerfully to others in whatever capacity we are able to.

When we trust that God wants to meet all of our needs, we will feel energized and cheerful about finding ways to give to others. 

Doing good comes from having the mindset of Jesus.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, [2] then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. [3] Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, [4] not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. [5] In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: [6] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; [7] rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:1-8 NIV

This passage teaches us that Jesus chose the character of a servant when he became fully human here on earth. This made Jesus stand out from the other religious leaders of his day, who wouldn’t lift a finger to help others with their burdens (Matthew 23:4) and craved status more than anything else (Matthew 23:5-12).

The humble and serving heart of Jesus is what led him to give his life for us on the cross. He changed our lives through his willingness to serve. 

Ultimately, our desire to do good comes down to how much we share the mindset of Jesus. The world around us often teaches us to value other things—like ambition and status. But to Jesus, true greatness was service:

Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. [25] Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ [26] But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. [27] Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

Luke 22:24-27 NLT

The disciples of Jesus didn’t initially value service, and Jesus had to teach them how to think. They needed to stand out from worldly leaders because of their eagerness to serve.

To have the internal motivation to do good, we have to ask ourselves what we admire and what we think makes us stand out to people around us. 

Jesus taught that we should value serving like he did. He didn’t need to be asked or reminded to serve. His desire to serve overflowed; he initiated doing things that no one asked or expected him to do (John 13:1-17). It was who he was.

I’ve seen this heart in a few friends of mine who love to garden and started a gardening program for adults with special needs—a population that often experiences high levels of loneliness. Everyone who comes gets the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of gardening and build encouraging friendships.

When we have the heart of a servant, we will see opportunities to serve everywhere. The challenges we go through in our own personal lives will open up opportunities to serve others in similar situations. In big or small ways, we will find ourselves doing good for other people and making impact beyond anything we could imagine. 

Doing good makes God known. 

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Acts 10:38 NLT

In this verse, Peter was telling a Roman centurion named Cornelius about Jesus. Although Cornelius was not affiliated with the religion of the Israelite people, he was seeking God.

In the US today, the religiously unaffiliated make up a greater share of the population than any other religious group. These unaffiliated people are often referred to as “religious nones” because they check the box “None of the above” when asked about their religion. 

While the “nones” are not seeking organized religion, many do have an interest in spirituality. In the Bible, Cornelius was one of these people. He was not asking Peter to teach him religious rules or traditions. He was devout, God-fearing, and generous (Acts 10:1)—but it does not appear that he was a member of a religious group. 

To share the message of Jesus with this non-religious man, Peter highlighted that Jesus was a man who “went around doing good.” We can apply lessons from this to our own desire to make God known to the religious nones of our day. Rather than emphasizing religous traditions or behaviors, we can focus on helping people understand God by doing good. 

The apostle Paul also emphasizes the importance of doing good in his letter to a young and inexperienced church leader named Titus:

Our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others; then they will not be unproductive.

Titus 3:14 NLT

Titus led a church on the island of Crete, which had a fairly non-religious population. Paul knew Titus would have to teach the Christians to do good in order to be productive in their faith. 

Interestingly, Paul tells Titus that the Christians would need to learn to care for others. This implies that doing good is not a natural part of our thinking and interacting with the world. Even as Christians, we need to be trained to live selfless, caring lives.

I have a friend who delivers groceries to a number of elderly people who are homebound and live in an underserved neighborhood. This started one Saturday when he agreed to fill in for a driver who couldn’t make it. He was thinking that this would be a one-time event. However, he was so encouraged by the genuine relief and gratitude of those served by this gesture that he volunteered again the following week. He has now been serving every month for the last 13 years, and he is often invited to be part of family events like birthday celebrations for those he serves.

He shared with me that it was difficult at first to be consistent, but he has learned to make adjustments, plan ahead, and work with his own family to coordinate needs. He has genuinely learned to do good. When doing good is our way of life, our faith will be “productive,” meaning it will produce great fruit. 

Final thoughts

The grace of God ignites our passion to do good, teaching us to reject what the world sells us and embrace the transformative power of service. However, despite our best intentions, sometimes we lose our desire to do good. When that happens, we can find renewed motivation by deepening our convictions about the impact of doing good and having the heart of a servant. When we are connected with God, we will shine a bright light in a dark world and make God known by genuinely caring for the people around us.