Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.My confession:
I love to be seen as good, godly, and wise by others.
I want people to notice the good I do and compliment me – and then I want to respond by “Oh no, I’m not good at all, it’s God in my life.” I’m hoping I get to have my Christian cake and eat it too.
God just isn't enough for me a lot of the time. It’s not very motivating to do things in secret and only get silence back. I don’t really believe there is has to be a trade-off in only telling him verses telling others too.
Being a “mature Christian”, I like to justify this by telling myself I need to be an example to others. It’s my responsibility. I think I’m insightful enough to know when to set aside the words of Jesus for the sake of “discipleship”.
I even like the idea of people reading this, thinking “only the most committed practice any sort of confession”. Lucky James wrote: Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed – so maybe I can get away with it and still receive some approval from God. I’m only about half sarcastic here…
As David wrote: The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
I’m lucky there’s forgiveness if I confess.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment.