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. Matthew 6:1
We’ve all tried to make sure others know what we’ve done for them
or maybe make sure many others know what we have done
If you check your own motives, who are you trying to impress?
God or people?
When you are doing your activities, going about your day,
Who are you trying to gain praise from?
Is it God or are you trying to gain admiration from others?
When we are trying to lift ourselves up, we are missing it with God
We’ve all done it
That is our flesh crying out to be recognized
Tit for tat
Pay me back
Notice the favor I am doing for you, I’ll collect later
Jesus has another way
For us to lend to the poor and look to the Lord for repayment
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord;
and that which he hath given will he pay him again. Proverbs 19:7
For us to do things for Him
and not expect anything in return from the receivers
That’s faith, that’s pleasing to Him
That thine alms may be in secret:
and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself
shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:4
If we don’t see our reward here, or notice it,
we will be repaid in the world to come
He won’t forget, even the smallest deed done for Him in secret
That doesn’t mean nobody can ever see,
but we do well to remember to not do things before men
otherwise, we have no reward from God
Blasting your goodness before the world is not going to impress God
Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth;
a stranger, and not thine own lips. Proverbs 27:2
The people that we have shown or told,
to make ourselves look good in their eyes is our reward
That’s all we’ll get,
The momentary acknowledgment from the humans who know,
humans who may not even care
If we do things, before God, to be seen of God,
He will judge and know our motives and reward us accordingly
He will honor us, He will repay us
and our hearts and His Kingdom will be the better for it