Matthew – Page 22 – Be Still…

Matthew 6:19-24 – Show Me the Money

Where do you find your security? Is it in your wealth? Are you driven to succeed only to have more money in the bank? Do you cut every corner imaginable just so you can make ends meet? Jesus is talking about our relationship to money, our need for money, and how we should view money. You may have seen before how this passage can be misinterpreted leading people to a wrong understanding.

Again, Jesus wants us to be relying on our Heavenly Father and focusing on building that relationship. When we distract ourselves with money, having more of it that is, we are keeping ourselves from having more of God. Again, the attitude of our heart is what God is watching.

Matthew 6:16-18 – What is Fasting?

Read Matthew 6:16-18

Simply put, fasting is going without food for a particular period of time for spiritual reasons. Have you ever fasted? I may have missed a meal or two here or there, but unless it was intentionally meant for spiritual growth it doesn’t count. Dieting doesn’t count either.

In the Bible, we hear of fasting. The Jewish people would fast on the Day of Atonement. There were other times, too, both for an individual and involving everyone. You will recall Jesus fasted while in the wilderness. However, today in our mainstream churches the spiritual practice of fasting is not front and center.

Matthew 6:5-15 – How to Pray

Read Matthew 6:5-15

Who better to learn prayer from than the Master himself. Jesus is giving us a model to follow. Did you recognize the prayer? In the tradition I grew up in, we prayed that every Sunday. The Lord’s Prayer was something we memorized as a young child. In Confirmation classes, we unpacked the meaning for a deeper understanding of what we had been saying over and over.

It’s easy to get lazy when we say something over and over. It’s almost like being on autopilot. We need to be careful to not just go through the motions but truly be present in the moment saying the words as if we were saying them for the first time. Jesus also cautioned us not to be like hypocrites, drawing attention to ourselves when we pray.

Matthew 6:1-4 – How to Give

Read Matthew 6:1-4

We have arrived in another section of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. We have been focusing on how we should relate to other people, and this section will focus more our on our relationship with God. We know that when asked Jesus said the most important commandment is to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind. Second to that is to love our neighbor. We must never forget what’s most important – to love God.

Jesus starts with a discussion on giving. This assumes that the hearers are already giving. It’s not a recipe for how much to give here, but the way we give. Jesus warns us to be careful and not be like the hypocrites. Apparently, when they give, they do so to be seen and get recognition for what they are giving. Their satisfaction must come not in the act of giving, but in the act of being seen as generous.

Matthew 5:43-48 – Love Your Enemies

Read Matthew 5:43-48

It’s easy to love our friends, most of the time. Even friends can get on our last nerve at times. Now imagine being nice to an enemy or someone who has done you wrong? That’s a little harder to picture, much less do. But in a spirit of loving everyone as God does, Jesus is encouraging us to do the same.

As the Old Testament taught us to “love our neighbor,” Jesus came to specify a little who our neighbor was. (More on this in Luke 10, read it HERE.) It had been thought that it was our friends. Folks on the fringes of society or ones who were mean to us would not be our neighbor, so therefore we didn’t need to love them. Jesus wanted to clear that up. God doesn’t show favorites. His blessings are available to everyone.