" Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others" (NKJV)
I always knew that God created me to be very sensitive to the needs of others. It's an innate nature that even when I do not feel like caring for others, I find that my conscience will hunt me until I finally cave in. The stronger I became in my walk with God, the more I realized that the conscience that hunts me is the Holy Spirit, who knocks at the door of my heart, prompting me to be more selfless and serve those that He has strategically placed around me. At the beginning of the year, God began taking me up a notch in my spiritual maturity. He then began to teach me that it's not enough to nice. Kindness must come from a pure heart and it must first be Christ-centered. If your kindness is attached to conditions or has alternative motives behind it, then it is not pleasing unto God. The passage I shared in Philippians talks about not doing anything through selfish ambitions or conceit. Selfish ambitions may include things like "I will help you, but you owe me", or constantly reminding the person you helped of your good deed months or years later as a way to manipulate them or keep them indebted to you. Another example of selfish ambitions is making the whole world think you are a good person by broadcasting your good deeds that you may get the applause of people. The Bible tells us in Matthew6:3-4,
"But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you."( NET)
What we do for others, whether it is rendering them a service, providing financial assistance, giving them your time, or even praying for them, should be a private matter. We should help with the intention of serving Christ, not stroking our egos. "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men"-Colossians 3:23. Having pure intentions, especially in an age where social media makes showing off so easy, is not always an easy thing, but as we mature in our Christian faith, we must be willing to allow the Holy Spirt to break us and mold us. The older you get in your walk with Christ, the more Christ-like you ought to be. He must increase, and you must decrease. (John3:30). God wants us to do good, but He desires that we do good consciously and be aware of our intentions and purpose. One of the ways to mature is to begin evaluating the driving forces behind why we do the things we do. The Holy Spirit began giving me a series of questions to ask myself and He has taught me to evaluate my intentions with these questions:
1. If the person you are helping never says thank you, will you be okay with it?
If the intentions behind our kindness is to serve Christ by serving people, we should not be bothered by whether or not the people we are serving appreciates or acknowledges the service. This goes back to Colossians 3:23 that tells us to serve with our whole heart, like we are serving God and not people. When we realize that our service is unto God, it becomes irrelevant whether or not we are thanked because the intention was to glorify God, not ourselves.
2. If no one will ever find out that you did this, will you still do this?
This question placed in my heart by the Holy Spirit deals with the scripture in Matthew 6:3-4. If your intentions for your help is to get public recognition, this question will reveal that. The Bible warns us about this. In Matthew 6:1 it says "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." In the age of social media where people can "like" our deeds so easily on Facebook, we must check our hearts to know what our intentions are.
If we honestly answer these questions and the answer to them is "No", then we have to stop and go before God to work on our hearts. The Scripture tells us that as water reflects the face, so does the heart reflect the man (Proverbs27:2). Answering "No" to any of the questions reveals that our heart is not pure and everything that is done for God must first come from a pure heart. In essence, God is more interested in the heart with which you give than the help or service you give. It serves you no purpose before God to serve others with unclean hands and heart because while the world may applaud you, you have not touched the heart of God. I constantly ask myself these questions before I write any of my blogs. When I sit to write, the Holy Spirit adds an additional question by asking me if I will still write even if what He instructs me to write is only read by one person. I have to first search my heart and know that I write to serve God, not to get personal fame. If it's for His glory, whether ten people read or one person reads should not be my worry. Why? Because" God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."-1 Samuel 16:7b
The old widow in the Bible had two pennies which she gave with all of her being at the same time many rich people gave millions out of pride and it was the two pennies that Jesus said pleased Him most. Why? Because it was given selflessly! (Luke21:1-4) In another example from the Scripture, Jesus tells us that if we are on our way to the alter to give an offering, and we remember that we have an issue with a brother, we should first go make peace with the person before proceeding to give our offering. (Matthew5:23-24). This Word of God reveals that in the same way God doesn't want us serving with ill intentions, He doesn't want us offering Him anything with a heart that is not pleasing unto Him. Just as it's commanded to first go make peace with the person we have issues with before giving to God, we must first make peace within our hearts before serving others. It is only when we can confidently say "Yes" to the questions above that we should proceed to serve others. The Holy Spirit is a teacher so if you find yourself struggling with your intentions, go before Him and ask Him to teach you how to be selfless in service. We may not be perfect, but we are asked to strive for perfection. As we strive to be and look more like Christ, God will give us grace. He is not a respecter of persons. As long as the desire is in you to be more Christ-like, God will supply the grace to do so, and the God that sees in private, will honor you publicly as His Word promises. Ask yourself today, why am I doing the things I am doing? What are my intentions? It is my earnest prayer that our intentions and our lives as a whole bring God the glory and not elevate us. Amen.
Yorkamazing <3
T.M.V- 1 John 3:18
