“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)
The other day I was reading in Matthew 6 and realized God had said basically the same thing three different times. Do you ever wonder why God does things like this? I expect that he has a reason.
If we only read it once, we may miss it.
If we only hear it once, we may not remember it.
If we hear and see it multiple times, we will get it.
When Jesus is talking about giving to the needy, praying in private, and fasting without ostentation, he ends each section with, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Why can the reward come only when we do these things in secret?
Or, maybe, what is the inhibitor that happens when we do these things in public?
I think it has something to do with our motives. If we give to others and expect our actions to be praised by other people, our motives aren’t correct. If we pray in public with the intention of being praised by other people, our prayers only draw attention to ourselves. If we fast with the intention of proving to others how spiritual we are, we totally miss God’s purpose in fasting.
If we give…
If we pray…
If we fast …. to be honored and praised by other people, we totally miss God’s intentions. God sees all we do. But when we do these with pure motives and without drawing attention to ourselves, our Father who sees all we do will reward you openly.
Our motivation matters.
Holy God,
You are our King who sits enthroned between the cherubim and we exalt you! You love justice, fairness, and righteousness, and we bow before you for you are holy. Create in us clean hearts so that we may honor and worship you. Renew our spirits so that they have the motives and motivation you desire for us. Give us desire to give, to pray, and to fast like you call us to do, but may those desires not be from what we can get out of it, but from honoring you fully. Help us to be with you as simply and honestly as we can manage and then be aware as our focus shifts from ourselves to you, so we will begin to bask in your grace. May you be pleased with the states of our hearts as we grow in our relationships with you. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
“1 The Lord is king!
Let the nations tremble!
He sits on his throne between the cherubim.
Let the whole earth quake!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established fairness.
You have acted with justice
and righteousness throughout Israel.
5 Exalt the Lord our God!
Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!
9 Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem,
for the Lord our God is holy!” (Psalm 99 NLT)
“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NLT)
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27-28 NLT)
“Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 NLT)
“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.
“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
“The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.
“When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn’t require attention-getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.” (Matthew 6:1-18 MSG)
(Originally published March 10, 2022.)