The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 20 May 2015 - "Jesus taught that we should seek to please God, not people"
Daily Scripture: Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to parade your acts of tzedakah in front of people in order to be seen by them! If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 So, when you do tzedakah, don’t announce it with trumpets to win people’s praise, like the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the streets. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 3 But you, when you do tzedakah, don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 Then your tzedakah will be in secret; and your Father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you.
5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners, so that people can see them. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, don’t babble on and on like the pagans, who think God will hear them better if they talk a lot. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 You, therefore, pray like this:
‘Our Father in heaven!
May your Name be kept holy.
10 May your Kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as in heaven.
11 Give us the food we need today.
12 Forgive us what we have done wrong,
as we too have forgiven those who have wronged us.
13 And do not lead us into hard testing,
but keep us safe from the Evil One.
[a]For kingship, power and glory are yours forever.
Amen.’
14 For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will not forgive yours.[Footnotes:
Matthew 6:13 The latter half of verse 13 is not found in the oldest manuscripts.]
Reflection Questions:
Jesus was a realist about human nature. He would probably tell graduates to beware of the urge to pray or do kind deeds just to impress people. He taught us the Lord’s Prayer, but not as a magic formula to be recited by rote. Instead, it was a model to guide us into personal, trusting prayer, again done not to impress but simply to communicate trustingly with God.
- Here’s a simple way to examine your motives, shared by Pastor John Ortberg in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted: “Do something good and try to make sure no one finds out about it” (p. 168). Why not try that this week? Keep some notes (only for your eyes, and God’s) about how it feels to increase your freedom from what Ortberg called “the narcotic of approval.”
- Jesus' depiction of people who think their prayers will be heard because they “pour out a flood of empty words” might recall the bizarre, tragic scene of the Baal prophets “praying” on Mount Carmel (cf. 1 Kings 18:26-29). They saw their god(s) as inattentive, impassive, and needing to be “won over.” How have you learned to trust that God wants to hear you, and you don’t need to impress God by eloquence or lengthy rhetoric?
Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I want you to be the “audience of one” to whom I direct my life focus and energy. Keep teaching me how to live every moment as though I am in your presence—because I am. Amen.
Angela LaVallie is the Worship Logistics Program Director at Resurrection. She oversees preparing the Sanctuary for worship, supports Vibe worship and volunteers in the Student Center, provides oversight for Holy Communion at the Leawood campus, and assists with worship logistics at conferences.
One of the most comforting things, for me, about having friends and family I can trust, is that there’s very little urge for me to feel like I need to impress them. They already know who I am, and if I pretend to be someone I’m not, they’ll call me out on it – this helps to remind me to just be who I am.
Christ knows who I am and who I am not even better than my family and friends. If I try to sound eloquent or am dishonest in my prayers, he knows it. Trying to make myself seem impressive does nothing at all to help me in my relationship with him.
It’s especially tough to not toot our own horns when we do something good in a world where we’re encouraged to always make ourselves shine brighter than others, to be the best. When we come to Christ in prayer, it is a safe place to share anything that is on our hearts. It’s okay to tell him, “I did this great thing, and I feel really good about myself because of it.” It’s also a good opportunity to ask his guidance to overcome any pride in our good works and ask him to remind us that the good we’re doing is in his name.
In his sermon this past weekend, Pastor Adam mentioned the prayer on a shower tag that is available at The Well Bookstore: “Lord, as I enter the water to bathe, I remember my baptism. Wash me by your grace. Fill me with your Spirit. Renew my soul. I pray that I might live as your child today and honor you in all that I do.” He said that if we pray that each day in the shower, it’s easy to remember who we are and how we’re to live.
In the same way, if we make a practice of sharing our feelings about and reviewing our good deeds in prayer instead of telling others, we’ll more easily remember why we’re really loving and serving others.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
913.897.0120
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