GIVING AND FORGIVING #1

The giving of alms (money or other necessity) is to test the heart, “where your heart is your treasure is also” (Matthew 6:20-21). Treasure is money but not only money. It is everything we treasure. The giving of prayer is to test our love, “when you pray go into your inner room, and shut your door’”(Matthew 6:6; also see Isaiah 26:20). The giving of ourselves to fast, and to a fasted life-style, is to test our pride and selfishness.

Jesus makes it emphatic that these are the secrets of the giving heart and that if these are seen and displayed to men that this is the full reward of them all. He also tells us if we practice this giving in secret then the “Father who sees in secret will repay us” (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18).

“Beware of practicing 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.” Jesus