Giving Secretly

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 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.

Mat 6:2  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.

Mat 6:3  But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

Mat 6:4  That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Helping others is not supposed to be about getting a pat on the back, a congratulatory note to pin on your bulletin board, a thank you card to collect, a trophy to set in a case, etc. All too often there exists a circle of people surrounding the needy causes and they vie for attention that comes from the amount of money or gifts they give to that cause. People are quick to point out that it's a great thing if it spurs on even greater gifts  for that cause, that they're the ones benefitting from all the vying for the title of most charitable, biggest heart, best giver, etc. I can't argue with the fact that the cause benefits from such behavior, but that's not the issue here.  The issue is the person giving not the cause, the issue is the REASON you are giving.

We have already been taught by Jesus just a short bit ago in the book of Matthew that GIVING is a necessary attribute of one who would follow Him.  Now in this new lesson we are being told NOT to give just to make ourselves look good, that giving in that manner isn't what is meant by giving to help others.

We are to take NO reward whatsoever for our giving, none!

How easy it is for us to tell others just how much we've helped, especially when they are going on and on about how much they've contributed. We want others to know that we aren't failing to give, and why do we want them to know that? Because we do NOT want to appear to be selfish, greedy, stingy, cold-hearted, etc. We want to be THOUGHT well of by others. We are CARING what others think about us. OUR PRIDE is rearing its ugly head and holding it high when we cannot refrain from announcing our own goodness.

Go ahead, justify your announcements.  Tell yourself and others that you are 'Just saying because…'  go ahead make up a reason, any reason at all.  You're just saying because you want others to help too and that's your way of encouraging them, you want others to realize how much you've done already and why you cannot do more.  Are either of those excuses anything but prideful, really?  Getting others to contributed based on your own contribution- that's just another way of saying HEY I GAVE NOW YOU GIVE, and you're trying to extract gifts NOT truly given freely but guilt driven from others. And to get others to understand why you can't give more than you already have- isn't that just patting yourself on the back, isn't it really to make you look like a good person in the eyes of others- making SURE they know just how charitable you are. You are caring that they comprehend you are a giver of alms, not lacking in that particular area. You are caring that they don't expect more from you. You want others to be able to say that you helped so much already.  In short you are trying to appease your need for others to believe you are very charitable otherwise why would you care at all if others knew that you helped? Isn't it truly supposed to be between you and God, no one else? Isn't it the Holy Spirit's job to convict a person to be charitable, not ours? Yes, we want the charity helped and no we can't do more than we have, but is it really our place to announce that we've done so much and can do no more? The Holy Spirit will convict a heart in ways our (even inadvertent and not meant to be bragging) trying to help cannot.

We aren't to CARE about others knowing the extent of our charitableness. IF the receiver of the alms chooses to publish your charity to others, that's one thing. But if the giver of the alms wants to publish their own charitableness, that's another thing altogether. We are NOT to draw attention to ourselves an our giving.  Our PRIDE loves being fed with accolades from others, and our pride is the last part of us we ever need to feed.

We can tell ourselves over and over that our reasons for revealing our gifts to others is a justified one and not borne out of pride at all, and maybe, just maybe it's true. But we cannot help but read these verses and have to wonder at our own motives, right?

Mat 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.

Mat 6:2  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.

Mat 6:3  But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

Mat 6:4  That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Don't left our LEFT hand know what our RIGHT hand is doing!

How secret is that?!  Seriously.  We know truthfully it's impossible, but it is emphasizing just how closely we need to guard the secret of our giving, and that has to be as closely guarded as you can possibly get.

Now if your motive for doing secret alms giving is to receive rewards from God, at least you are looking for rewards from the Creator, the Redeemer, who has rewards to give that are eternal.

Told to do this so our Heavenly Father will see and reward as HE deems fit, this is a lesson we really need to learn, isn't it?

It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, you can still be selfish in your giving, you can still be prideful in your giving. Being poor is no excuse for not being charitable.  We talked about the following verses just a few days ago…

Mar 12:42  And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

Mar 12:43  And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

Mar 12:44  For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

She cast in ALL that she had- even ALL her living.

Just the other night we were talking about in reality people 'casting in ALL' they have.  'Giving up everything' to follow Jesus. 'Going and selling ALL they possess' in order to become a disciple.  And we were very quick to determine that we aren't REALLY expected to give up everything, because how then would we live?

Yet at what point do we make the cut off- of giving enough and having just enough to live by?  And how exactly do we equate this poor widow casting in ALL that she had, ALL of her living? 

This truly is a lot of FOOD for THOUGHT isn't it?

Our giving, our alms, our charity where does it come from exactly?

The ability to do so must come from our SAVIOR who gave all.  From our SAVIOR who taught that we should lay up our treasures in HEAVEN not here on earth. 

Satan would have us give selfishly, every last penny we give to the poor is stained if we are giving it with a prideful heart, with a selfish desire at its core. 

Another trick of Satan's however is trying to keep us from giving anything at all because we fear we are doing it with a prideful heart or selfishly.  Satan loves to box us in and confuse us, he'll do all he can in any way he can to get us on his side and away from our SAVIOR.

Ultimately we have to prayerfully go forward and do as we believe we are being shown to do, praying for the Holy Spirit to guide it all and teach us the way to go in CHRIST, keeping us from Satan's many, many wiles.

We cling to CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, as we comprehend over and over again how filthy our own righteousness truly is.

Please Lord, bless us. Please LORD show us the way we are to go. Please LORD help us to give alms as You desire us to, all for YOUR glory, not for our own.

In YOUR amazing love, forever!