The pitfalls of wanting to be admired.

Matt. 6:1 “Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.”

It seems like much of the church has gotten pretty careless in this area.  With the ready accessibility of mass media, there are so many who want to broadcast for the world to see their good deeds.  There is so much self-promotion going on in the church that one has to wonder what is really going on. 

We like to be noticed and we want others to be attracted to us.  We want others to want to support our endeavors.  We want to be the popular church in town.  We want others to know what we are doing. 

In light of our verse today, I wonder what the Lord thinks about the way we do things.  I wonder how many of us do things that go unnoticed.  I wonder if the Lord is pleased with our doings or if He has a problem with what we do because of why we do them. 

We like to be admired, but if that is what motivates us in what we do, we are in deep trouble with the Lord.  The praise of man will be the only reward we get for our labors.  And, if we are not careful, feasting on the praise of others may cause us to drift away from the Lord and make it difficult to find our way back.

Whatever you do in the name of Christ, be sure you do it for the Lord’s glory and honor and not your own.