Year 6, Day 180: Matthew 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

Much of this chapter talks about how we relate to this world.  But this is not a chapter about us relating in a ministry kind of way.  Jesus isn’t lecturing us on how to help people or how to council them.  Jesus is teaching us about what is going on within our hearts.

Jesus tells us to be very careful when we give to others.  He doesn’t tell us not to give.  He tells us to be careful that when we give we don’t do it for the accolades.  For the record, He says the same thing about praying.  He doesn’t tell us not to pay for other people – certainly not!  What He says is that we need to be careful that when we pray for them we aren’t doing it to receive accolades.  The same is true for fasting, too.

Do you hear what Jesus is getting at?  Who doesn’t want to receive the recognition of the people around them?  Who doesn’t want to feel valued in life?  Who doesn’t want to feel needed?  Of course we do.  But in the end, what is better – to have the approval of the people around us or to have the approval of God?  Naturally it is the approval of God that matters.

When we do ministry, our motivation is just as important as our action.  Why we do things matters, especially when we consider the eternal.

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