Tooting Your Own Horn

 "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." Word of Jesus, Matthew 6:1-4

Question: Do you want the applause of men, or rewards from our heavenly Father?

I want my reward from my Lord.

We all know at least one person in our lives who like to tell you everything they do for the Lord, for the church, for their neighbor.

I confess, I've been guilty of that as well. But if Jesus warns us not to be seen of men when we do good, why should we tell men when we do good?

When we want to be seen by men, our motives are wrong. Jesus tells us not to do good things just for show for the praise and applause of men.  When we do that, we rob ourselves of blessings from the very hands of God.

I had to laugh when I read, "do not sound a trumpet before thee.."  I think this is where we get the saying, 'Don't toot your own horn!' from.  LOL  

We are told not to proclaim our good deeds.  Just do good unto others for the sole purpose of doing good to others.

"Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."  I like Guzik's comment concerning this statement.  He said, "If it were possible, even hide our good deeds from ourselves. Though we cannot be ignorant about our own giving, we can deny ourselves any indulgent self-congratulations."

Yes.  When we do good unto others, if not seen by men, it's easy to pat our own backs, but we shouldn't do that either.  Our good done for others is because we love our lord and want to be like Him by loving each other and being kind to each other and helping each other in time of need.

No Self-Kudos Allowed!

So, what's the motive behind our giving?

Jesus wanted His followers to realize that doing good deeds for other is for the glory of God...

    Not for our glory...

        But that's just me!

"Keep the thing so secret that even you yourself are hardly aware that you are doing anything at all praiseworthy. Let God be present, and you will have enough of an audience."

Charles Spurgeon