30 Days on the Mount of Blessing, pt 2. Be good.

Nathan: 00:00

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Jesus. Matthew 6:3, 4. Hi, it’s Nathan, and this is Day 3 of 30 Days on the Mount of Blessing, PT 2.

Try it. Stop telling anyone about the good act you did. Don’t bring it to anyone’s attention—not even your bestest friend. Start being good, not just doing it. There is a powerful principle in Jesus words’ that we often overlook: true goodness lived out in a life of selfless acts does something powerful. It has a profound impact within the doers’ life—an impact that is truly lost every time we turn our acts of goodness into attention grabs. Once that act of giving becomes mere attention-getting, it is effectively gutted of its value to us; robbed of its power to bring deep, satisfying pleasure; transformation. It’s almost like creating a short-circuit. The electrons surging toward that grand chandelier — wasted in a brief flash and a puff of black smoke—never to light up the splendid ballroom. See, goodness for goodness sake reacts within us to make us beautiful people—bringing shine and sparkle to the world around us—but the moment we start reaching for credit—spark, puff—and we short-circuit the whole thing.