“Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:1
The verse above clearly describes what the motive of our Christian service ought not to be. We ought not to act righteously to receive the praise of people, for then we will have no reward from our Father who is in heaven. But the truth of this verse extends even deeper. Certainly, we ought not to live for the praise of people, but furthermore, we are not even to live primarily to serve people. Our lives are to be lived in service to our Lord and Saviour. Although the outworking of this will be in the way we minister to people, yet it is vital that we hold the Lord Jesus Christ central in our hearts and minds as the object of all of our Christian service.
The reason, I draw your attention to this is that people will inevitably disappoint us. We may give much time and energy to a noble cause, just to have it never noticed or appreciated. We may express our love in various ways to those knowing trials in our own Church, just to never have that love acknowledged or even returned when we go through trials. All of these situations and many more can make us disillusioned and even bitter.
If we live to serve people, the very people we serve may one day reject and abandon us. But Christ has promised to never leave us or forsake us! He has also promised that if we don’t grow weary of doing good, we will reap His reward in due season! It may look like you are not reaping any reward for all your energy spent in the service of Christ, but the due season is not yet! Jesus tells us in the above verse that if we do our Christian service out of a right motive, then our heavenly Father will give us an eternal reward, out of His amazing grace!
Today is Pastor Appreciation Day. By God’s rich grace, we have been given a Pastor who seeks to serve Christ faithfully and wholeheartedly, as he ministers to this church family. Please take this opportunity to drop him a word of encouragement, and join me in thanking God for Pastor Jacques.