In Outlive Your Life, Max Lucado tells the story of Ananias and Saphira in modern day parable fashion. Actually, I should not call it a parable, because it is a true story that happened in the early church. “Ananias – his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him – sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it." Act 5:1-2
As the story goes, this was a free will offering, made under the pretense that they had sold a piece of land and were giving all of the proceeds to the church. In essence, they used their gift for self-glorification. Their punishment shows how God feels about this. In fact, much of Jesus’ teaching showed His contempt for hypocrisy and pride. (Matt 23:5-7,13-14, 25)The definition of hypocrisy is to do something to be seen by others. An act. Lucado writes, “Hypocrisy turns people against God. So God has a no tolerance policy” The world is about getting to the top of the ladder, wannabe superstars etc … but the kingdom of God is not supposed to be that way. He lists three ways for us not to fall into this trap:
1) Expect no credit for good deeds – If no one notices, don’t be disappointed. The One who sees all, will reward you. If someone notices, give credit to the One who enabled you. The question to ask is, “If no one ever knows the good you are doing, will you still do it?”
2) Give financial gift in secret – “When you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” (Matt. 6:3)
3) Don’t fake spirituality – Be real. Don’t sit somewhere to be noticed. Don’t use the right words just to seem genuine.
“Silence the trumpets …If accolades come, politely deflect them before you believe them. Slay the desire to be noticed. Stir the desire to serve God.” Max Lucado
These thoughts challenge me, because I like to be acknowledged. I like comments! But I do not want to hang on to them too tightly, looking rather for my reward in heaven than here on earth. I pray the Lord helps me in this.
14 comments:
Oh this is a good one for me too. This book business has been a whole new world for me. .trying to wade through the accolades and so on. I have also struggled with telling about the royalites. ..but on the other hand. .sure don't want anyone to think we want this for ourselves.
Good food for thought today Anneliese.
Excellent word, Anneliese, and very practical to have the 'how-to' points 1,2,3 given.
I have been thinking about the message "do not be weary in well-doing" lately. I think I was confusing the "doing good" in the sense you mean it with "well-doing" of KJV which I guess means just doing the right thing, keeping on following after Him.
My understanding of that phrase now is that we shouldn't give up on the Christian walk and lifestyle when it's challenging to us, and slip back into old patterns. Sometimes I do get weary of all the activities and helping people and hospitality and the never-ending demands on my time, and I was wondering if getting weary of it was nullifying the "well-doing" effect. But if it means just keeping on in faithfulness and not giving up or growing weary of following Christ, it is quite different in meaning.
I know this is not what you were writing about but you jogged my thoughts which I am expressing badly!
Dear Hollace,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You are so right about the challenge to not grow weary. I guess we could get weary for several reasons. .. one being the need to be noticed .. we are not to grow weary just because no one notices. Having said that, we are still called to encourage one another. Secondly, Jesus says that His yoke is easy ... I believe He will provide the stength and joy for what we are supposed to do... but we do not have to do everything. We are part of a body where each is given a gift to use to edify the whole.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Like you said ... faithfulness is what matters in the end
This is a good reminder Anneliese. Somehow it is in us to want to be recognized and praised for the good we do. However God asks us to do good to honour Him not ourselves.
I like the photo of your granddaughter's offering. Children give from the heart with love as we should also do.
I think we all need affirmation sometimes to encourage us, but we cross the line when we let that build into selfish pride. As you mentioned, the challenge is to serve humbly and quietly, knowing that God sees and will reward genuine service.
It surely is a challenge sometimes to not grow weary when there are so many hardships in your life. But I am continually reminded where Jesus says in Matt. 11:28-30. Come to me all who are weary.... The Lord keeps reminding me to put all my troubles on Him, He is certainly bigger than I am and He can and will take care of us. Sometimes it is hard not to be noticed when you do things repeatedly and it seems no one cares, but I have to keep reminding myself that God does care, and He sees all and will also reward all. Thank you so much for this post Lisa. Love Mary
Good message. I may just go out and buy that book.
Great, practical advice! I think we all like to be acknowledged, but like you I don't to measure my worth or my relationship with God by others praise - or lack of it. We can know without a doubt that He never missed the smallest deed we do for Him and others. That's what really counts!
Good word for me. I think we all desire approval from others; so it's hard not to let others know when we do something good. But I've noticed at school that some students are approval junkies--they just want to be noticed for every little thing. It usually gets them into trouble. I don't want to be like that!
It is only by the grace of God and by your love of serving God that you are able to do what you do. Where I differ from Max Lucado (who has a big old picture of himself either on or in the cover of his books) is that I believe that God created us to receive, with thanksgiving, the accolades that come our way. Enjoy the moments when people applaud. And remember that those accolades are also a gift from God...moments to be enjoyed and moments to learn from. And when there is instruction or constructive criticism, we take those moments in too, once again with thanksgiving and learning. And this is where wisdom comes into play...wisdom reminds us that it is not us, but God who has provided us with the ability and strength to do what we do to bring glory to Him. And I think that God, the father, is proud of us when we do his will, and why wouldn't he want us to know that he is pleased...now...here on earth also. Isn't our God big enough to reward us both here on earth and in heaven? and in different ways? The Bible talks of earthly blessings when we obey God and honor Him. King David received and celebrated his accolades and rewards here on earth and I'm quite certain that "a man after God's own heart" will also receive rewards and accolades in heaven too. There are many seasons in life and if this happens to be a season of rejoicing and dancing with joy...then rejoice and dance with joy! Because we know all too well that there are also seasons of mourning. God had a plan, He directed and you MGCC gals followed and obeyed and have constantly pointed to God along the way...very clearly and beautifully and deliciously! Take in all the accolades with thanksgiving and humility, it is just one more gift/blessing from God. And then keep on obeying God. And I'd love to hear Max Lucado explain Romans 2:10.
Dear Ocean Soul,
I surely agree with you that people need affirmation and recognition. What this chapter talks about, however, in relating the story of Ananias and Saphira is "doing something specifically for attention" ... and in the process living a lie. They pretended that they gave the whole amount of the land they sold, when no one had asked them to give anything at all.
Jesus accused the religious leaders of that time of "hypocrisy" when they took the best seats, used the money that should have been given to widows and prayed lengthy prayers for show.
That, as far as I understand is what Max was saying, and I think you would agree with that. We can ask ourselves about our motives ... is it for us or for Him? Yes.. it is the Lord that we serve... some things are more visible ... some things are invisible to others and we can rest in the fact the God sees ... and it will matter in the end. The three points still remind us (1) not to "look" for the accolades, (2) to give in secret (I'm not talking about the book here - because that is a situation that encourages others... they are the ones sharing in giving with us .. yes, even making it possible (3) be real, don't be proud
Thank you for your blessing and encouragement.
Thanks for this, Anneliese. I got a lot from your post, but also from the comments.
Lot's of food for thought here, Anneliese...both in your post and in the comments. Here's what I am underlining...'forget about being noticed, but make serving God your priority'.
'Stir the desire to serve God'..now that is something to keep working on.
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