We understand from 1 John 4:21 that God is love and commands that anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. That means that if you want to show love to God, show it to your brother or sister here on earth. One of the ways we show love is by giving, and giving to your brother or sister results from giving to God.
From the Old Testament, we realise that God only accepts a thing as offered unto Him if it is provided to Him willingly from the heart of the giver (Exodus 25:2). Nonetheless, God doesn’t require us to give because He cannot provide for the people Himself but because He wants to bless us as we bless people. That is the foundation of giving that Jesus built upon in Matthew 6:1-4. However, today, we will delve deeper into how to practice genuine generosity in privacy, as Jesus espoused in Matthew 6:3.
Do not make a public show of your generous deeds
“Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”
Matthew 6:2 KJV
As humans, we set limits on various things for ourselves. One of the limitations is classifying events or acts into private and public. Our principles do not govern God. God is Omnipresent. He sees everything we do, whether private or public. He rewards us based on the state of our hearts when we give. Even in secrecy, a person may give “a bribe” as a gift. God doesn’t bless such a person’s act; He blesses those who give generously, out of love, and in secret. Today, people publicise and broadcast their donations, claiming they are doing it to raise awareness; however, giving begins in the heart. That is where the secrecy Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6:4 occurs.
No one except God knows what is in a man’s heart. Unless man acts out of the abundance of his heart, you shall never know what is in his heart. For this reason, God looks at the intentions of these politicians and philanthropists and gives them what they deserve. So, brother, your basis for giving should never be that people will see you have given.
Avoid telling close friends, except your spouse, about your good deeds.
It is very easy to do good when you have the intention of making known to your friends, relatives or even the general public what you have done. Jesus teaches us that we do not have to make our good deeds known to our close friends, pastors and even our benefactors, no matter how close we are to them. The right hand is very close to the left, but Jesus still says we should not let others know about our good deeds. If you give with the mindset that people are seeing, your reward will be that people will actually see your good deeds. That is because that is what you said and did in the secret place of your heart.
Your spouse, however, can learn about some of these things. As a man or woman, you are accountable to God first and your spouse second. Per Genesis 2:24-25, the two shall become one. That means telling your wife about your good deeds is like telling yourself. However, this is subject to the exception of “… do not let your left hand know what your right hand does” principle (left-right hand principle).
A husband can do good in his workplace and come and tell his wife about it to receive applause and validation from her. He will receive his applause and validation, but it will be his reward; God will not reward him. Why? He has made his left hand, which is part of his body (just as the wife and husband become one body), to see what his right hand did. A wife may tell the husband she wants to give or has 2 Million Ghana Cedis to an orphanage, and that would not be against the left-right hand principle. Why? Because it was for accountability reasons. Therefore, it all boils down to the giver’s heart in giving.
Create a system to allocate your funds for easy flow of generosity.
Take it like you are doing a business and have your upkeep money and revenue in the same account. How do you effectively run your business finances? You might spend some of the revenue, thinking you are spending your cash. For you, as a believer, to practice genuine generosity in privacy, you must create a system, like separate bank accounts for money they intend to give or a reserve for things they plan on giving out.
A person who is not intentional about giving may give only in times or situations where they are asked to give. When this happens, it is hard to do so privately. However, where a person has a system in place for giving, they are able to control the events of publicity that may occur from giving spontaneously.
God is your reward.
As stated earlier, a person who loves God loves their neighbour and gives to them when they are in need in need. In so doing, they see themselves as giving to God. If you give to God through men, then your reward is from God, not men. If a Senator or an MP does something for his people because he wants his people to applaud him, why should he expect others to praise him? Giving to God because you want Him to do things for you is fine. But if you are giving to God because you love Him and want to show your love by giving, what more do you expect from God? Your reward is that He accepts your offering. Your reward is God. And if you have God, you have everything.
For this reason, God, knowing that you are in this world and you definitely need things, would give them to you because He also loves you and sees what you do for those in need. In principle, what you do to people when they are in a situation is what should be done to you when you are in the same problem. Just hold on even when it looks like God is not seeing the good you are doing, for in due season, you shall reap (Galatians 6:9).
In conclusion, giving is part of the lifestyle of the Christian. However, it must be done generously and in secret, as the Word teaches. You can practice genuine generosity in privacy by not making a public show of your generous deeds. Avoid telling close friends but your spouse of your good deeds. Create a system to allocate your funds for easy flow of generosity. And remember that God is your reward. Genuine generosity in privacy is more beneficial to God than being generous to be seen as such in the public eye.
Related: Give to the poor in secrecy
