My four year old loves to play pretend. He is always the hero saving the day. He was so into his pretend world the other night that he would not go to bed till I told him I would save his “little friend Sonic” who had been captured by the bad guys.
As Christians we can be found in the same situation. We can pretend to believe something for so long, that we actually fool ourselves into thinking our faith is genuine, when actually it is as shallow as a puddle. Scripture has a name for that, hypocrisy.
Our passage today warns us against hypocrisy when praying, giving and fasting. These three things are acts of faith and our text clearly says, do not be like the hypocrites who… Instead we need to believe that when we pray, give and fast it is actually the power of God moving.
The test in knowing if you are doing these acts with a pure heart of faith is if you’re willing to do them privately, without anyone else knowing. If your only witness is God to how often you give, pray or fast, than that is a good sign you are seeking His glory and not your own.
We can all get caught in a world of pretend, but it’s being able to identify when our actions and intentions don’t match up that matters. And not changing would just be childish.
Read today’s passage at Biblegateway Matthew 6:1-18
1 comment:
Thank you, Katie. I read this reading this morning, and then reading your meditation on it just now made it sink in.
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