It was spoken that “your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” The focus of this teaching was the basics of spiritual living: prayer, fasting, and alms giving (Matthew 6:1-18). However, God is not simply interested in what you do, but why you do it. The Apostle Paul wrote that faith without love is nothing and there is no profit in our works if they are not done in love (1 Cor.13:1-3). God is seeing if what we are doing is to obey His commandments to love Him above all things and others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).
Some do works and proclaim faith as hypocrites. They are like actors in a show. They strut their hour on the stage hoping to get something from their audience. However, when all is said and done actors only play pretend.They may fool the world but they cannot fool God.
Spiritual living is not about what we do. It is about what compels the person to live out their life. Some give because they want to feel like they are a good person. However a Spiritual giver does not need to feel like they are a good person since they know they have sinned and will probably sin tomorrow. The Spiritual giver gives as he is given by his Savoir. Even in our hearts, we see that we often only play pretend.
How can Christians discern between a true spiritual life from a fake if even our own hearts deceive us? Just where is the “secret place” if even in the isolation of our hearts we deceive ourselves? We must look to the testimony of the saints who have gone before us and learn from them how to attain a true spiritual life that is openly rewarded by the Father.
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