Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good...

Note: I originally published this post on my personal blog, Narrow Path Pilgrim. The content is appropriate here as well, so I offer it for your consideration.

Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:9

This morning, as I sat with this familiar verse, the Divine Wind began to stir with an uncomfortable question. Paul's admonition seems straightforward enough - keep doing good, don't give up, and you'll receive your reward. But then the Holy Spirit whispered a deeper challenge, one that connected this passage to another moment in Scripture that shook me up.

Galatians 6:9 What Does "Good" Really Mean?

I found myself thinking about the rich young ruler in Mark 10:18, who approached Jesus with confidence: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus's response cuts through our assumptions like a sword: "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone."

If only God is truly good, then what does it mean for Paul to exhort us to not grow weary in "doing good"? Are we, like the rich young ruler, trying to perform our way into God's favor? Are we measuring our spiritual success by our own definition of goodness rather than surrendering to the One who alone is good?

My Own Rich Young Ruler Moment

This theological tension became intensely personal today when I experienced my own rich young ruler moment. I had been researching keywords for this blog post, excited to discover that "Galatians 6 9 meaning" had 590 searches with "easy" competition. The algorithms seemed to promise me success if I optimized my content correctly.

But as I began crafting a post designed to capture those search rankings, the Holy Spirit interrupted with three pointed questions: "Who controls the universe...Google or God?" "Who knows who needs to read the messages that I want written...Google or God?" "Who establishes the credibility of a website...Google or God?"

The fog bank cleared, and I saw myself standing in a field far from the narrow path I was supposed to be walking. Like the rich young ruler, I had been asking, "What good thing must I do?" - in this case, what SEO strategy must I implement to reach more people? The Holy Spirit's response was gentle but firm: "You have been deceived by a keyword research tool! Do not be led by the allure of more views. Get back to the narrow path!"

I felt like a fool, but a liberated fool. I had been measuring my "doing good" by human metrics rather than divine calling.

A Parable of Two Faithful Servants

This experience led me deeper into the mystery of Galatians 6:9. What does it truly mean to "do good" when our human attempts at goodness are always tainted with self-interest, pride, or in my case, the desire for platform growth?

Let me share a parable that emerged from this wrestling...

What if the Holy Spirit simultaneously blows the Divine Wind on two faithful servants - a Pure Christian Mystic and a Pure Christian Evangelist? Picture the mystic alone in study, practicing the presence of God, when he hears the Spirit's whisper: "Write a series of letters that will take a lifetime to complete." Meanwhile, the evangelist receives his assignment: "Go to every street corner and proclaim the Gospel of Christ."

Both men obey without question. The mystic spends his entire life writing, pouring his heart into letters that touch only one soul during his lifetime - one person comes to accept Christ through his ministry. The evangelist takes to the streets with passion, and through his preaching, one million people are saved by God's work.

Both men die and stand before Jesus for their reward. Which one would we expect to receive the greater commendation?

Our flesh immediately wants to crown the evangelist as the "winner." After all, one million souls versus one - the math seems obvious. But what if those letters, published posthumously, resulted in one million and one saved souls? Then, who would we say "won"?

The question itself reveals our spiritual poverty. We're still trapped in the rich young ruler's mindset, trying to quantify goodness as if God operates on a cosmic scoreboard.

Jesus Doesn't Count Beans

This isn't mere speculation - Jesus Himself taught this principle in the Parable of the Talents. Remember that the servant who was given five talents and earned five more received the same commendation as the servant who was given two talents and earned two more: "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" (Matthew 25:21, 23)

Notice what Jesus didn't say. He didn't tell the five-talent servant, "Excellent work! You're my top performer!" while giving the two-talent servant a participation trophy. Both received identical praise because the Master wasn't counting the numerical results - He was evaluating their faithfulness with what they had been entrusted.

This is proof, in Jesus' parable, that He isn't counting beans. He's counting on our faith and willingness to act on that faith in both small and large things. The reward isn't based on the size of our platform, the number of souls we've led to Christ, or the traffic to our website. The reward is based on faithful stewardship of our unique calling.

This is a powerful awakening for all who feel spiritually inferior because they aren't evangelizing like Billy Graham incarnate. You might be called to write letters that touch one heart, while your neighbor is called to preach to thousands. In God's economy, faithful obedience to your assignment carries the same eternal weight as faithful obedience to theirs.

But there are no bean counters in heaven tallying who has brought whom into the Kingdom. These vanity statistics are created by the ego of man, not the Mind of God.

God's Time vs. Calendar Time

This is where Galatians 6:9 takes on revolutionary meaning. When Paul writes, "for at the proper time we will reap a harvest," we need to step outside our confined thinking that restricts the impact of our "doing good" to this lifetime. We assume "calendar and clock time" as if they are God's time. They are not.

God's time is that individual grain of sand in the horizontally aligned hourglass where the eternal Now is all there is. In God's time, the mystic writing his letters, the evangelist sharing the Gospel on the street corner, and yes, even the blogger writing posts - we're all doing our work "as unto the Lord in each moment" for the love of God.

The Antidote to Weariness

When we operate in this eternal Now, something beautiful happens. The ego is stripped away. The bean counting disappears. The church peer pressure about altar calls and conversion percentages evaporates. All that remains, when the persona and ego mask are dropped, is a heart that wants to walk the narrow path of trust and obedience.

This is the antidote to weariness in doing good. When we stop measuring harvest by human metrics and start living in surrendered obedience to each Divine Wind moment, the pressure lifts. We're not responsible for outcomes; we're responsible for faithful presence.

Whether on this side of life as we know it, or on the other side, if we do not become weary in doing good, we will at the proper time reap a harvest. Our reward will be great in heaven if we listen intently for the Holy Spirit and act on His voice - not because of what we accomplish, but because of how faithfully we surrender to His leading in each eternal moment.

The mystic with his lifetime of letters and the evangelist with his street-corner proclamations were both practicing the same discipline: the presence of God through their unique calling. Neither was keeping score. Both were saying "Yes, Lord" to whatever the Divine Wind whispered.

That's the narrow path I choose to walk, even if the only reader of this website is my mother, who is in heaven! At least I'll be able to stand before God and say, "I didn't sell out to Google or any other man-made tool. I listened for Your voice and wrote what You wanted written."

That, pilgrim, is what it means to not grow weary in doing good, from my perspective. Of course, I could be wrong, so take it to the Lord for yourself. God bless!