“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.”
Boy, this can be a tough one. It’s easy to get caught up in
the praise and attention we may receive for doing good works. It feels good
when we are recognized, thanked, and praised for doing things that are helpful,
kind, and beneficial to others. But after a while, we may find that we seek
this attention without even realizing it. We start to do good things because we
know that someone will see us and show appreciation for what we have done. And
then one day, we are doing those good deeds and they go completely
unrecognized. We are stopped cold in our tracks, wondering where the “thanks”
have gone…wondering where the pats on the back, big smiles, and expressions of
gratitude have disappeared to. And we might even get irritated or annoyed with
not receiving our recognition…we can become angry with the person we have now
categorized as “selfish” for not giving us our due credit. Heck, we may even
decide to dial back our good deeds a bit. After all , without praise from man,
the thrill is gone. That’s when we come to the humbling realization that
perhaps our own motives of trying to be selfless are actually in fact selfish.
We start to see that our motives for doing good are not centered solely on
serving our God, but rather on serving ourselves. The tricky thing about this
approach is that when we don’t get that recognition from the other person, we
tend to get frustrated, bitter, and unmotivated. The devil gets a foothold and
convinces us to stop doing good works altogether. Or we keep doing the good
works but get annoyed and angry when we don’t get the credit we think we are
due. Matthew 5:16 gives us sound direction for doing good deeds…”In the same way, let your light shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”. This sound direction points all the praise,
credit, and glory back to God…the one deserving member of the equation. God has
given us every single good thing that we have in our lives…and he has done it
completely mercifully and graciously. It is our great privilege that when we do
get recognized for doing something good, we simply point the attention back to
him…we give him all the glory, honor, and praise. It’s the Lord and the Lord
alone that equips us with the opportunity and ability to do good and bring his
love into this world. To God ALONE be the glory!
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