This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more and read other posts in the series.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
As a sinful human being, there’s a part of me that always seeks glory for myself.
When I do something nice for other people, I’m inwardly hoping that they’ll notice and thank me or tell others about how nice a person I am. I want them to acknowledge my good deeds and give me recognition or honor for them.
God, forgive me! All of my righteous acts truly are dirty rags.
In these verses from Matthew chapter 5, Jesus turns that sinful, self-serving mindset upside down. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
The point of our good deeds as Christians in this world isn’t to seek glory, attention, and recognition for ourselves. It’s to provide others with opportunities to glorify our heavenly Father, who has given us the abilities to do those good deeds in the first place.
As sinful humans, we’re naturally self-seeking and prideful. We need the daily reminder from God’s Word to put to death our sinful nature and humbly seek to serve God with our lives, living for him in thankfulness for what he has done for us.
What we do in life is not for our glory, but God’s.
We let our light shine as Christians to point others to him, directing their attention to the God who loves them so much that he sent his Son to rescue them from sin. We take the focus off ourselves and put it right where it belongs: on Jesus.
As the late Kate Barclay Wilkinson wrote in stanzas 4-6 of her hymn, “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior”:
May the love of Jesus fill me
as waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing:
this is victory.
May I run the race before me,
strong and brave to face the foe,
looking only unto Jesus
as I onward go.
May his beauty rest upon me
as I seek the lost to win,
and may they forget the channel,
seeing only Him.
Dear Christian, may the people we meet forget the channel and see only Christ and his love for them in our actions.
Today as you pray, ask that God would continue to provide his people with opportunities to glorify his name through acts of kindness, love, and praise to him.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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