The Right Deed Gone Wrong
Have you ever felt like you did the right thing and somehow got punished for it? I certainly have, and recently, these situations seem to be multiplying like rabbits in springtime. There's an old saying that "No good deed goes unpunished," and sometimes life appears determined to prove that axiom true.
In the past couple of weeks, I faced two particularly challenging situations where I followed the right path with the purest intentions, only to be met with heartbreak and disappointment. I won't bore you with the details, but imagine doing everything by the book—crossing every 't', dotting every 'i'—and still ending up with results that make you question whether you should have bothered at all.
In times like these, it's tempting to throw up our hands and say, "Why bother? What's the point in living right if things are going to turn out badly anyway?" The flesh wants to rebel and declare, "I might as well live life on my own terms!" Trust me, I understand these feelings all too well.
But here's where we need to pause and remember something crucial: God never promised that doing right would be easy or immediately rewarding. In fact, the Bible tells us quite the opposite:
"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12)
The truth is that sometimes doing the right thing costs us dearly. Joseph did the right thing by fleeing from Potiphar's wife, and he landed in prison. Daniel did the right thing by continuing to pray, and he got thrown into a lion's den. Yet in both cases, God had a greater purpose that wasn't immediately visible.
When we feel punished for doing right, we're actually in good company. Jesus Himself was perfect, yet He suffered more than anyone. The difference is that He understood something we often forget: the eternal perspective trumps temporary discomfort or disappointment.
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17)
So the next time you feel punished for doing right, remember this: God sees, God knows, and God rewards—perhaps not in our timing or in the way we expect, but He is faithful. Our job isn't to understand everything but to trust Him even when things don't make sense.
After all, doing right isn't about getting immediate rewards. It's about pleasing our heavenly Father and becoming more like Christ. And in the end, that's worth any temporary setback we might face.
Keep doing right, dear friend, not because it's easy or because it guarantees immediate success, but because it's right. The rewards may not come in this life, but they will come. God's word guarantees it.