TO ANOTHER LEVEL (PART 8)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 6:1

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today’s scripture verse, the first from Chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew serves both as closure for the series, “To Another Level”, and a segue into a shorter series I will start tomorrow, “Who Are You Glorifying?” Let’s take a look at this verse again here:

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 6:1

How many Christians have you observed inside and outside the church who seem to want to always be the center of attention?

I see it more times than I care to want to admit and frankly the actions I see are troubling at the least and as we see, disappointingly contrary to the teachings of Jesus at best.

You see, as we are seeking the will of the Lord and then following that will be fulfilling whatever purposes we’re called to, the end result has to always be that the Lord is glorified and magnified. Period.

It’s not about us. Jesus is telling us to avoid practicing our righteousness in a way that we become the focal point of the good we are doing. We’re not to be performing the work of the Lord in a way where we get all the credit. We’re not to be lifted up on a pedestal and somehow elevated above the masses because of our righteousness.

Rather, our work should be done in a way where we are invisible, in a way where someone is only left lifting up the Lord and praising Him for His righteousness and goodness, as if He had done the act, not the person He called to do it.

The Lord and the Lord alone is to be lifted up. The Lord and the Lord alone is to be invoked as the Author and Invoker of any act of righteousness we’re privileged enough to be a part of. The Lord and the Lord alone is to be credited with everything it took for any of us to make a difference in the life or lives of others as He calls us to do His work and gifts us with the skills and resources to make sure that work is accomplished.

We can’t afford to treat our work for the Lord as the world treats occupation and compensation. In other words, we aren’t out there doing the work of the Lord as if we desire or expect any compensation or reward for our works. That’s not the way it works and as Jesus explains, no reward from heaven will come to anyone who is doing the Lord’s work as a way to gain some kind of recompense. It’s a reward system that is at another level from the ways of the world.

You see, we have already been rewarded more than we deserve by our Lord.

For although we deserve death, He grants us mercy and redemption.

Although we deserve the fullest measure of His judgment, He instead gives us grace and forgiveness.

And although we deserve to be hated and despised for the sinners that we are, the Lord instead loves and cherishes us, desiring to bring us salvation so we might live with Him, not just for the now but forever.

Through Christ Jesus and the eternal life He brings to all who believe and trust in Him as Savior, a Christian has the greatest gift that could ever be given, a priceless reward that gives us hope in life not matter what comes our way.

Today and every day, won’t you simply allow the Lord to have the credit He deserves, the credit for every good and perfect thing that you’re blessed to be a part of?

If you do, then you will adopt the same attitude as John the Baptist, the one who came to make the way for Jesus, the one who said this:

“He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:30

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com