Posted on 05/09/2019 3:59:59 AM PDT by metmom
“‘When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you’” (Matthew 6:3–4).
When you give as Jesus directs—lovingly, unpretentiously, and with no concern for public recognition—“your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” In other words, if you remember, God forgets; and if you forget, God still remembers. You should simply try to meet every need you can and leave the bookkeeping to Him. This kind of giving is just a matter of realizing that “we have done only that which we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10).
There is nothing wrong with humbly anticipating our reward for true and honest giving. God knows our hearts, attitudes, and motives, and He will not fail to reward us appropriately. After all, our sovereign Lord knows exactly what everyone is doing (Heb. 4:13).
In giving and every other realm of good works, Jesus Christ is our perfect role model (cf. Eph. 2:10). He preached and taught before crowds large and small, and He did miracles of healing, compassion, and power over nature for many to see and benefit from. But He always focused the final attention on His heavenly Father and did not seek His own glory but the Father’s (John 8:49–50).
Our motive in hoping for any rewards ought to be the anticipation of placing them as offerings at the Lord’s feet, like the twenty-four elders who “will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power’” (Rev. 4:10–11).
Ask Yourself
Like with any sinful tendency you wish to conquer, the secret is daily obedience, even in the smallest ways, not wanting to give the enemy the slightest opening for victory. In what ways could the day ahead likely give you an opportunity to practice this—to seek God’s reward alone?
Studying God’s Word ping
Ahh... the Robert Tilton philosophy.
This preacher has never been like Tilton, and isn’t in this case either.
Biblical principles remain valid even if some charlatans abuse them for personal gain....
Giving with the expectation, ANY expectation of getting something in return isn’t “giving” - it’s trade.
Exactly!!!!
There’s nothing new here about being rewarded for giving charity. Not only that, but God basically says: “Give charity and you’ll be rewarded - test Me, I’ll show you” :
“Bring the whole of the tithes into the treasury so that there may be nourishment in My House, and test Me now therewith, says the Lord of Hosts, [to see] if I will not open for you the sluices of heaven and pour down for you blessing until there be no room to suffice for it.”
-Malachi 3:10
If that means not giving that pro panhandler money so be it. If it means sitting with a stranger who may well be insane, there we go. The reward is in doing right and good for it's own sake.
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