Giving in secret

"When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you….so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6:2,4).

We are all junkies for approval. Our heavenly Father knows that and (Praise God!) he does not discourage this craving but encourages it in a positive direction. Matthew 6 is a wonderful revelation which, if taken to heart, gives the sinner like me power to do good in secret without any particular heroism being exercised.

Doing good things to be seen by others and to win their approval is a tough case. But God does not ask me to give it up. He merely asks me to make a substitution: Do it to win his approval (John 5:44). This is cool. This is like the guy who walks into a saloon and buys drinks all around, and laughs off an insult, and smiles when someone at the bar spills beer on his new boots. "What's gotten into him!" they whisper behind his back. "How come he's not his usual ornery self?" But he has a secret: an hour ago he learned his Uncle LeRoy died and left him a million bucks. Who wouldn't be generous-hearted?

The Apostle Paul couldn't care less about other people's approval (1 Corinthians 4:3). And he couldn't care less about other people's credentials (Galatians 2:6). "Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath. Of what account is he?" (Isaiah 2:22).

When you think about it, why do we waste our lives worrying about the opinion of people who aren't even on the right wavelength?