Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Thursday 10/27/2011)

Matthew 6:1-4

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Why Did You Do It Anyway?

Matthew 6:1-4 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹TAKE CARE not to do your good deeds publicly or before men, in order to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward [reserved for and awaiting you] with and from your Father Who is in heaven. ²Thus, whenever you give to the poor, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets like to do, that they may be recognized and honored and praised by men. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full already. ³But when you give to charity, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴So that your deeds of charity may be in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly.

            I have had people come into my life or I have had people who have been in my life that I have helped.  My mother told me something a long time ago which is “don’t give with the intent of getting back, give it because you are led to do it and that is within your heart to do.”  Our Bishop said the same thing a few weeks ago and it stirred up some thoughts within me. Recently, I have seen people being hurt, talked about, lied on and just down right treated poorly by people that claimed to be friends, family and brothers and sisters in Christ in some cases, over things that they had done for them. If a person was unable to reciprocate or give them back the same type of help or return to them what was loaned in a time or manner that they saw the berating and slander begins. I have even seen public assaults on characters and persons, and I have heard of private attacks and degrading communication.  The question that rose up in my spirit is why do we do for others?

            Many of us will do because we in that moment think it is the right thing to do, but what happens to that thought, leading or attitude on the day that person does not conform to our way of thinking or doing things?  Others of us do things because we feel a need to feel needed, but then when we need, and do not receive what we feel we are deserving of, we become offended and we allow negative thoughts and hurtful behaviors to manifest.  Others of us do things for all the wrong reason, we do it not because God has told us to, not even because it is in our heart to do, but because we have a need to feel superior, or that we have the capability that someone else lacks.  When we do things feeling this way, nothing good can come from it.  You have gotten your reward, because you made a name for yourself by saying you helped, this is when things can also turn ugly, because the right motivation is missing so it will cause bitterness, resentment, a need for control and to lash out and hurt, whether it is deserving or not.  I have watched people destroy other people’s self- esteem, reputation and break their hearts over things, and dollars and cents. It is a sad day when we use our ability to provide for someone in their time of need as a weapon of destruction or a bone of contention or weight we hold over their head.

            There is an even sadder fact and that is when we help not knowing the fullness of a person’s pain, experience, situation or circumstance and we judge them on the lies, stories and thoughts of ourselves and others that are just as clueless as we are.  The Bible reminds us that what we do to the least of these we do unto Him.  But it is better to bind a milestone around our neck and throw ourselves into the seas than to offend one of His little ones, meaning His children (His followers).  We are sometime so busy judging people by our standard and putting them down we never seek to find out what is really going on, nor do many of us really care because we are too caught up feeling good about us and thinking that our stuff doesn’t stink to care.  My mother and my grandmother instilled in us, this truth: “it is only by God’s grace that we do not walk in someone else’s shoes, and it is only by God’s mercy that we are not consumed.”  Before you loan another dime, before you do another good deed, before you go out of your way for someone else, ask yourself, really what am I doing this for, and what do I hope to gain?  You see all that we do should be as unto the Lord, and if we are doing it with any other intent or any other motivation remember that is all the reward and all of the thank you that you will get.  But more importantly if you can’t release it, without strings or thought for it, don’t do it, because it will be an act done it vain and it will bring no glory to God and only seek to frustrate you and those who you will hurt as a result of things not working out the way we want them to, and in the time we want it to! Remember to Let God and Let God, or Don’t Let God At All!