“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. NIV.
Dear God, please teach us how to be more like You. We want to live in a way that is well-pleasing in Your sight. Please help us to be careful how we offer our service to You. As we meet to study Your Word, please teach us how to do this in a way that is acceptable in Your sight. In the name of Jesus we humbly pray. Amen.
Today as we begin our study on how we can eradicate The Evil Within, it is interesting to see that Jesus begins by getting our attention: He is saying, almost literally, “Be paying attention! We are to live our Christian lives consciously! It is an ongoing action! I like to call it, in my own experience, “taking inventory.” Personally, I like to ask myself from time to time: “Why are you doing this?” “Is it to make you look good?” “Is it to bring glory to God?” “Is it to help the person?” I like to look into the recesses of my heart and see what is happening there. Jeremiah 17: 9 reminds us of the following: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Therefore, God is reminding us that we must be constantly, “paying attention” that we do not end up “putting on a show,” like the Pharisees did. What is noteworthy is the fact that they practiced this exhibitionism in every aspect of their religious lives! Jesus made mention of it many times! “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret” (Matthew 5: 2-4a).
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (5-7).
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (16). Fasting and prayer, are important aspects of the Christian life. They are also very intimate spiritual practices in the life of the Christian! They should be kept between God and the individual.
In Matthew 23, we find the following: “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi” (5-7).
If you pay close attention, all of these practices feed our pride! They make us appear “holier than thou.” For this reason we have been advised to “keep paying attention” to what is happening on the inside. This is good admonition, “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom (Song of Solomon 2: 15). If we can keep the foxes of evil practices and evil thoughts out of our lives, while we are in the process of reaching spiritual maturity, by God’s grace, we may look forward to a harvest of spiritual fruit – the fruit of the Spirit!
May God help us to be constantly vigilant, so that we may be able to identify the evil within, and by God’s grace, start the process of eradicating it before it causes our spiritual ruin.
NOTE: My regrets for these late publications. I am not publishing from my home, and my schedule is a bit out of the norm. Thank you for your faithfulness in visiting our website, yours and mine! Blessings,
Mabel