Living in Accordance with God's Mission

People, especially young people, today can smell phoniness and hypocrisy very quickly. They yearn for authenticity, reality, and truth. They tell us not to say one thing and do another. They tells us that our hearts have to align with our words, attitudes, and actions otherwise we will lose credibility with them fast.

Jesus addresses these issues in Matthew 6 by teaching that we need to "beware of practicing righteousness before other people in order to be seen in by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." It seems like the quickest way to lose credibility with others and God is to do something under a false premise. In Matthew 6 Jesus provides three examples where this plays itself out: giving, praying, and fasting. In each of these examples, it appears that the person giving, praying, or fasting has the need to draw attention to oneself rather than to God. Jesus points out hypocrisy in this type of behavior.

How can God work in people's lives who don't know Him, if we are continually drawing attention to ourselves and away from God? What does say about our hearts? Are they on board with God's agenda or our own? It seems that throughout Scripture the message is to lay low (position of humility) and look high (directing our affections and thoughts to them, not ourselves).

Let's examine ourselves and root out our behaviors that others can sniff out as not being true and authentic toward God. Let's live in accordance to God's mission.