Giving to receive rewards

"(1) Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in Heaven."                       Matthew 6:1-4.  New Living Translation

The Pharisees made a great show of giving alms. They were always wanting to look good in the eyes of other people. This is why Jesus said, 'they have their reward.'( v2) The reward that they received was admiration from people, which really gave them nothing at all. The reward we seek is the one from Our Heavenly Father.

If we stop and think about it, what we do for others and what we give, goes unnoticed; but does that matter? If God sees what we do, that is all we need. He is the one that will reward us, not this world. However, if we give to the church or to a particular project or person, and announce this fact with the sound of trumpets, then that is the only reward we will receive - people's admiration, not God's.

You see, God doesn't want us to be all puffed up with pride and acting in a totally pious way. He wants us humble - 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, so humble yourselves before God.' (James 4:6-7 NLT) 

God wants us to use our money and our time, sensibly. With regards to our money, it is His in the first place, we gave Him our life and that means everything. So therefore, we need to give Him His share - a tithe which is usually a tenth of our income. From thereon, what we give to people, as a seed, we can expect a harvest from. 'But this, I say, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.' (2 Corinthians 9:6) This doesn't mean that if we determine in our minds to give £100 believing that we will receive back a harvest of say, £1000. It doesn't work like that; that is a business deal, the way the world would operate. We are on Kingdom Business and God will reward us with a harvest if we give humbly on a seed time and harvest time basis. 

We don't give to receive; we give to bless and when God sees this, He opens the flood gates of Heaven's blessing towards us. That is God's reward, not the world's. What we need to remember is, without God, we would have nothing. He is our resource; He is our life; He is the one who walks with us on a daily basis taking our hand when we become hurt and frightened. He is the one that matters and that is all.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com