From the inside Out

Read Matthew 6.

Jesus continued instructing His followers how to live for God and with each other.  In this chapter, He taught on the subjects of giving, praying, fasting, and investing.  While it may seem to be a broad range of topics, there is a common thread to them.  What is done in private God will make known publicly.  That statement will either spring up hope within us or a dread of exposure.

The emphasis here is not maintaining religious rituals but guarding our motives for participating.  This is not an escape from practicing these spiritual disciplines.  However, we must do them for the right reasons.  If our spiritual activities are for the purposes egoism, to be seen by others and appreciated by them, then there will be no spiritual benefit.  Indeed, such will only be a pretense of religiosity.

What God is looking for are hearts that are so grateful for His goodness that they cannot wait to give and invest in His work.  What God is looking for are hearts that so recognize their utter dependence upon Him that they seek to be alone with Him in prayer and fasting.  It is in the privacy of one's heart that the Holy Spirit sees our true motives and meets our deepest needs.  Our outward activities are to be the responses of gratitude.

Our Heavenly Father is eager to reward in His way and in His time those who faithfully obey Him.  This does not preclude people knowing or seeing some of the things we may do for God.  Rather, it is a self-judgment of why are we doing these things.

At the root is the question is one of priorities.  If we honor God, he will honor us.  If we do not, we cannot expect Him to bless us.  But we tend to worry about when and how the blessing of God may come, if at all.  That is why, I believe, the closing message in this chapter addresses that issue.  It begins with the belief that God knows our needs and that He will be faithful to us.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (v.33)  Maturity in the Christian life is work done from the inside-out.