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Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬ ‭

If you’re like me, when you do something stupid like trip or fall, one of the first things you do, is to turn around to look to see if you’ve been seen. Nobody wants to be seen doing something less than graceful, or intelligent! No one really wants others to see our failures.

But when we do something good, that’s another issue! We look around to see who is looking.

We learned this way back in kindergarten or before! If you do something good, you get a sticker! And it doesn’t matter how old you are, all of us like stickers in one form or another! 

Social media is famous for that. When we do something good, the “look what I did” mentality runs deep. It’s easy to get sucked into the mentality that your worth and value are dependent on the number of followers you have, the number of likes you have, or the number of shares or re-posts you get. 

As with so many things, inGod’s kingdom, it’s the opposite. God rewards what’s done in secret.

Jesus says don’t do things so others will see them and give you praise. Paul says be patient in doing good because someday you will be rewarded. Other Biblical writers encourage us to do good things in private rather that seek public recognition.

Too often we seek the rewards of man rather than the praise of God. What an awesome thought! God, the creator of this universe, the one who created all of this beauty, wants to praise us when we do something good, and even more so when those things are done in private or without human recognition.

What’s done in public for human praise is short-lived and fickle. But God’s praise for you in private glorifies him, builds on eternity and may be preparing you for bigger things in the future that may be seen in public.

You may not feel appreciated for the things that you’re doing for others. But keep doing those secret things. You never know what God is preparing you for in the future.