The Lord is interested in how we behave as His people. Therefore, we do have obligations. How we live and what we become will either reflect the Lord or displace Him. There are three basic practices - giving, praying and fasting – that the Jews considered and still consider as their basic responsibilities in life. However, we need to know that Jesus’ primary concern for His people in each of these practices is the same – their motive. What motivates us to give or pray or fast matters to Him. The Bible is clear that God is more concerned about our heart. When we perform for the eyes of others, the motive is wrong and rotten to its root.
The Lord assumes that believers will practice and
exercise these religious duties. It’s needful to give to the poor, to pray
daily and to fast periodically. While each practice is good and necessary, it
is more important to be doing it simply to and for God Himself. We must never let
personal interest, to look impressive to men and hence to receive their
applause, replace God in the process of doing them. We need to know that the Father
desires to reward us. Yet the reward should never be our primary purpose in
these religious obligations. For just knowing God better is already reward enough,
and we can be assured that He will add other things to our lives as well. So
the call is to do everything to please God and Him alone. Be sure that men’s eyes
will be watching us, but we must carry out our duties to please God alone, and
not as a performance to get men’s approval.
In these six verses, Jesus highlighted two of the
three obligations – giving and praying. He said when we give, don’t make a big
show out of it. There is no necessity for big publicity and needless hullabaloo.
We should not do it to draw attention to us. We must do so privately and
secretly for the eyes of God. This will be more pleasing to Him and we will
have our reward from Him.
So also for our prayers.
Jesus tells us that we don’t need a public platform to pray. Our prayers will not
be heard just because they contain high sounding words and well constructed, and
impressively articulated. We don’t need to be showy like the hypocrites, who
love to offer such prayers. A good prayer is one that comes from the heart and spoken
to God, especially when offered in private. So let’s cultivate a daily, one-on-one
with God, private closet moments where no one else is looking. These are moments
that will please the Father who awaits us each time we draw near. Know that in
giving as well as in praying, The Lord invites us to a life of congruence, where
our inward life matches our outward life. For He watches both aspects of our
living and awaits to reward us.
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