[Monday's Devotional] - When you give

1. When you give How are we to serve God through 'acts of righteousness'?  This week, looking at chapter 6 of Matthew's gospel, we will hear Jesus speaking about giving, prayer and fasting.   Jesus begins:   Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  Matthew 6: 1 [NIV]   The first religious duty Jesus mentions is giving to the needy.  When we do this, we are not to show off; we are not to attract attention to ourselves.  We need to ask ourselves the question, for whom are we doing this?  If we are doing this to be seen by other people, so that they may think what a generous person we are, then Jesus states, we have already received our reward.   Giving is to be done secretly.  Jesus uses over-the-top language to describe it.  Rather than announcing our giving by having someone blow a trumpet [v 2], even our left hand should not know what our right hand is doing [v 3].   What Jesus says here about giving money could be applied to giving our time or our talents.  We don't need the adulation of other men and women.  We're doing it for the Lord's eyes only.   When we have given God all have and are, we have simply given him his own.  [William Plumer]   Lord, you know all things.  Help me to give in response to your incredible generosity shown to us in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.   David Long   Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!