Heart Matters

So have you ever had the experience where you have read something quite a few times before, but then you read it one and you see something that you've never really noticed before? It's kind of like driving along on a road over and over and one day you happen to notice a sign on the roadside that you haven't seen before, but you know it was there the whole time. Maybe you don't, but there are times that you just get into such a zone with things being familiar that you don't notice things that seem obvious.

Here is where this is coming from. I've been doing a Bible study with a group of folks now for about 7 weeks. We meet every Monday night at 11:00pm on AIM and have a discussion about what we read the week before. We are now going through the book of Matthew and this past Monday we talked about chapters 5-7, or The Sermon on the Mount. This is one of the places that has all kinds of topics for very meaty discussion, so it was cool to have a group to be able to talk to about what stood out to us. As I was reading though, I came across something that I'm sure I have seen before, but not really thought about. It was something that I have thought about and talked about before with others, but there was something in it that I had missed in those times before.

In chapter 6, Jesus says three times in His teaching to do something in private, "and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you." (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18) Like I said this is something that I have known for a while, but I had not realized that it is mentioned these three consecutive times. This is probably due to my breaking up the chapter or only reading certain sections at a time. But this time around it stood out to me.

Here is the deal: the three times that Jesus says this it is as he is teaching on three disciplines- giving, prayer and fasting. These three things are ones that are easy to get attention for and easy to get a swollen head about. These are the things where it is easy for us to boast about what we have done concerning each; how much I have given, how long I pray or how long and often I fast. When we do them with that kind of pride, Jesus says, they lose their significance.

Think about it for a second. These are the areas of our lives that should be kept to ourselves. It should be between only you and God (and I guess the financial secretary) as to how much you give. God says that what he wants is a cheerful giver, not a big giver. Jesus reinforces this point with the example of the widow who gave all that she had in her offering, while the Pharisee gave only what he was expected to give, and made a big deal about it.

Prayer and fasting are the same way. God doesn't care if we use big fancy words, or polysyllabic words (in fact I don't know if that is a real word or not, but it seemed good) or even a multitude of them. He isn't concerned about how long we fast or from what we fast. What God wants is our heart. He wants us doing these things for Him, not for others to see and know about. And this seems to be where it is easy to fall short. When we do these things as Jesus instructs us, there is no glory in it for us here as far as other people are concerned. Instead all the glory is reserved for when we are with God in His glory. Peace and love y'all.