Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

In reading this just now the thing that immediately came to mind was the recent statement by a prominent Christian figure that we worship to make us happy, and God just wants us to be happy. She has been roundly and broadly condemned for that statement, but the idea is all too typical of far too many Christians. God does desire to bless us, and there are countless blessings in everything He tells us to do, but when our focus is on what we will get out of something, we immediately lose the real blessings. Here, Jesus is saying we aren’t to do good deeds for the purpose of having people think well of us, but we also have to be careful we aren’t thinking that good deeds will cause God to owe us something. We don’t deserve any of God’s blessings, but as the Bible says repeatedly, God pours good things out on both good and bad people. (Matthew 5:45) We are to do good things out of gratitude, yes, but most of all because God says to do them. Obedience to God brings abundant blessings, but as I’ve already said, a “gimmie” attitude robs us of the very blessings we seek. The other side of this is that I have seen people who were so afraid of being seen doing something good that they tied themselves in knots. That too is a focus on self, rather than on God. The whole point is to be focused on God and what He wants us to do, and get ourselves out of the equation as much as possible. The better we do that, the more the blessings pile up, both for us and for those to whom we minister.

This is, naturally, especially applicable to me, because I am a “professional Christian.” It gets awkward at times because I want to be an active example to others, and for that, they need to know what I am doing, so I have to be all the more careful about my attitude, and how I go about letting them watch me. The simple answer is to stay focused on God and obedience to Him, whether people happen to notice or not. I am not to keep from doing good just because somebody might see me! God is to be the motive and the goal for all I do in every part of my life.

Father, thank You for the privilege of acting as Your agent in so many different ways. The blessings are indeed abundant. Help me not focus on the blessings but rather on what You are doing, with full gratitude for being able to participate, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!