Head: Know God's Word | Heart: Love God | Hands: Follow God's Way  

Read Matthew 6:1-5 

 Head 

In today’s reading, we see that God wants us to be humble. He tells us that if we give to people or pray, we shouldn’t brag or do it so that others will notice what we’ve done. He wants us to be humble, give, and pray because we want to show others our Heavenly Father. We don’t give to be seen or rewarded by men. Scripture says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” How amazing that our Father wants to reward us! The Word also tells us to not be like the hypocrites acting like we have it all together by praying and giving and showing off to people. They will receive the reward from man, but that will be all they get. Our reward will be in Heaven!

Heart 

Do you think Jesus bragged when He did something good? No. He loved God so much that all He wanted to do was please Him. Everything He did, He did solely because He loved His Father. We should do the same! Everything we do should come from our love for the Father, not from our own selfish desire to be seen.

 Hands 

Do you sometimes struggle to do things for the right reason? Do you ever pat yourself on the back when you do something good instead of giving God the praises and thanks that He used you to point people to Jesus? Take a minute to think about your life. Are you giving or praying so that other people will think more highly of you, or are you doing those things in secret so only your loving Father gets the credit for it? Ask God to change your heart and give you the desire to only do things to give Him all the praise and glory.

Prayer: God, we love You so much! Help us to remember that when we give and pray it’s for You and You alone. If there’s anything in us that becomes more about praises from others, we pray that You change our hearts. Help us to die to ourselves, and may all that we do be done solely because we love You and want to serve You! Amen.