Giving

Hello: 

Our text for today is found in the 6^th chapter of Matthew.  Can you believe that we are finally out of the 5^th chapter?

Matthew 6: 1 Take heed that ye do not your alms  before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not  sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

These next few verses that we’re about to get into are some of my favorite topics.  They deal with the subject of giving, praying and fasting.   The first issue is giving.    This really is simple yet many of us have problems with it.  For those of you that have been following the Matthew study from the beginning you’ll remember that earlier we talked about the heart and Jesus is concerned about our motives.  In all actuality, it really doesn’t count if it doesn’t come from the heart.    

Today our teaching deals with our motives when we give.   If we give with our intent that we want people to know what we gave then the text says we have our reward.  What is the reward, you may say.  It is whatever satisfaction you got when you realized that people noticed you gave.  That’s it, that’s all you get from your giving if that was your motive.  Was it worth it?  

Jesus teaches to do it not for the glory of men but as unto the Lord.  Now, check this out.  Jesus also promises us that if we give in secret then God will reward us openly.   This is so powerful to me, though we gave and no one knew that we were giving or what we gave the text teaches that God will reward us in such a way that everyone will know that we are blessed of God. 

God’s way is Perfect and rewarding.    It’s amazing and so life changing. Tomorrow, we’ll pick up our study with prayer.  God Bless. Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily. 

This entry was posted on 16. July 2008 at 11:52 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.