Everyone, look at how Christian I am…
Matthew 6 – …Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
There are three things mentioned by Jesus with this disclaimer at the end – giving to those in need, prayer, and fasting. Three spiritual acts that we should all be involved in on a continual basis. Three things we should most assuredly do, and most assuredly keep our mouths shut and our hearts in check about it.
We live in a modern church culture that part of our giving to the needy (it should not be all) is our giving to the church. This is the time of year that we also receive a giving report that we can use for tax deductions. So, there it is, our reports on the table in the foyer, or coming through the mail, letting everyone know that we are good people, we gave to the church. Although our total amount of giving is hidden from others, we can pretend that we gave a whole bunch and that we are studious and generous givers to the cause of the kingdom through the local church. Some give more, some give less. But I gave, and my sheet of paper is my proof.
We live in a modern church culture that we pray for others in need. It’s biblical. It’s right. Let’s call for the elders of the church to pray for those that have a request. We pray out loud. We make sure people around us can hear the words we say. We place our hands on people as we pray, letting them feel our spiritual grip on their shoulders – we are serious. And we all finish the prayer out with a rowdy,”Amen!” 15 minutes later, much like the effect of Chinese food, we can’t remember who or what we prayed for. But it makes no difference, people heard our cries to heaven.
We live in a modern church culture that we fast or sacrifice and we let others know our travail through our update timeline. We’re fasting Facebook, so we send out a Facebook post to let our Facebook friends know that we are fasting Facebook and here’s our number for texting if you need. Or we send out a status update requesting a good Daniel Fast plan, because we are going to do a Daniel Fast. It’ll be hard, but our friends can help us through it.
Nothing against these things we do in church – we need giving reports, we need prayers that are bold and loud for people to hear, we need to get information on fasts and sacrifices – but we need to make sure the reason we do these things are for God and not for others to take notice.
Sometimes we just need to examine what and why we do Christian things – is it for Christ or for people to see how Christian we are? Is it for the glory of God or just for glory.
Jesus continued teaching in Matthew 6 about these 3 things – giving, prayer, fasting – they are necessary to the health of the believer. But in order for us to have success, we need to make sure our heart and motives are toward God and not man.
