“Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)
Who gets the glory for your good works?
Or mine? Human nature is such that in this, we’re more likely to resemble the
Pharisees. What I mean is this: For me, even harder than doing right is doing
right for the right reason. We read of King Amaziah in 2 Chronicles 25:2, “And he did that which was right in the
sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.” The most besetting (and egregious)
sin of the human heart is pride; and pride thrives on recognition. The problem
is so insidious that we can even be proud of being known as never seeking
recognition! This is one reason why the doctrine of so-called “sinless
perfection” is so ludicrous. Pride will rear its ugly head in the saintliest
among us.
Do we have to “go with the flow,” then?
allow this innate hunger for appreciation
to flourish unchecked? I don’t think so. We may not be able to starve it to
death, but we can certainly see that it always suffers from malnutrition, at
the least. The first six verses of Matthew provide us with a good rule of
thumb. In essence they say, do as much behind the scenes work as you can. The
less fanfare, the less credit. Some of the good things we do cannot be hidden, of
course, but a great many of them can. This is one of many reasons why personal ministry is important. Not only
does it mean so much to the individual we may be helping; but it more nearly
exemplifies our Lord when He washed the feet of His disciples.
The next time you find yourself with an
uncontrollable need to feel a spiritual pat on the back or hear a hearty round
of applause…look higher. God is keeping the score, and He doesn’t miss a thing;
and the heavenly grandstands are full of cheering saints, who’ve been where you
are (Heb.12:1).
God doesn’t give His glory to another
(Isa.42:8); so if you got it, you stole it.
No comments:
Post a Comment