I once heard a story of a man who was at a restaurant eating dinner with a woman. The food ended up being a little more than what he could eat so he asked the waiter if he would give him a box and put it in a bag, so at end of the night the waiter brought the gentleman and his female companion the bag. After they had driven a few minutes the gentleman noticed that the waiter had given him the deposit of the day from the restaurant. Without thinking twice he turned to the restaurant with the money in hand. Just as gentleman walked in the waiter looked at him with great relief, hugged him and thanked him. Then the waiter had an idea, he wanted to call the local newspaper to declare the man a hero for his honesty. When he explained to the gentleman what he was about to do the gentleman pulled him to the side and said the following: “please don’t call the newspaper I’m a married man and the woman I’m with is not my wife. This man was not willing to take money but had no problem with cheating on his wife or maybe stealing another man’s wife.

The point of the story is that doing good things don’t make us good.  “Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ.” (Steps to Christ p. 7)

What I’m trying to say is that doing good things won’t change us, the only power that can change humans is the power from above. We cannot replace our time building our relationship with God with doing good things. Only God can restore the whole being of the person. Always remember good people are perfectly capable of doing bad things only with God’s help a good person can be consistent.