Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Matthew 6:3-6 -- On Private Prayers and Authenticity

"But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Matthew 6:3-6


This is interesting stuff.  We are told to be lights to the world and to set an example for others, but here we are also told to be careful about what we reveal... and the reason seems to be pride.  When we do things for the praise of others, then that will be our reward.  But if we do things for a purer motive, then God can reward us differently.

It seems pretty easy to do things for the wrong reasons, so perhaps what God is saying with these ideas that pull a little bit in different directions is that we need to think about our motivations, and help people and set a good example because we like people and we want to help them, not because we are trying to protect our image. :)  And when we pray and do alms, we do it because we want to talk to God and help his children, not because we want people to think we are cool or extra-pious. :)

Examples of how we live our lives and are happy are one thing, but if it is for show and not real, then what are we accomplishing?  Somehow, God wants us to mesh our "fake it" with our "make it" and be truly authentic and truly good... not advertising how cool we are, but just being good on the inside, which is the best example of all... because we can all spot fakes, right? :)

Today, let's work on our authenticity.  Let's bring who we want to be into the actions of our lives and let's let what we want people to think of us fade a little, as we learn some humility and let go of our pride that demands that we look perfect all the time.  We're not... and it's okay.  We all have things that we need to repent of and apologize for, and that were unbelievably stupid.  Let's own those things, and then work on changing and becoming better as the sometimes broken people that we are. :)  God can fix us, if we look to him and work with him... privately and sincerely. :)

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