02/05/2025
Are we willing to serve God unnoticed and in the darkness of obscurity? How many times do you give to the kingdom without a receiving a receipt? These are questions that I invite you to consider this morning. It is in our human nature to want appreciation and acknowledgement for what we do. We all want to hear the words "Great Job!", "Well Done!", “or “You have blessed me.”, but what if God asks us to put our pride aside and obey His will or give of ourselves with no other eyes on our obedient goodness except His? Can we step into the shadows and give Him all the glory without desiring some of it for ourselves?
“Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!”
Psalm 96:7-8 ESV
Serving in obscurity requires great faith and self-restraint. In doing so we are telling God that His recognition of our efforts is more than enough and that our actions are offered in His name as a personal sacrifice for His glory out of our love and obedience. Serving in this manner requires hours of prayer as we not only build selfless faith in God but ask where He would like our efforts to be applied.
Jesus taught His apostles to pray what we call "The Lord's Prayer", but he did so after having told them to pray in secret... Serving God in secret is like praying in secret... it is a confirmation that we value our relationship with God far more than our need for the recognition of men. Praying and giving in secret takes our effort or offering to a person or church and redirects it such that it becomes a gift to God alone.
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:6 ESV
I guess you are wondering why we pray "The Lord's Prayer" so openly in church if the Lord desires us to pray in secret. Well, not all prayer is secret; some is for instruction or encouragement. This is also true of serving God. Most open service to the Lord should be to encourage others who see it, or to ask others to join in an effort that is large and requires many hands or prayers to accomplish it. However, the danger in openly serving God is our inclination to become proud in what we do. We are tempted to become like the hypocrites which Jesus spoke of...
“"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
Matthew 6:5 ESV
It would be so easy to serve and pray in public as those around us patted us on the back and said "what a holy person you are", as we halfheartedly give the glory to God, but if that praise and adoration becomes our motivation then all of our reward will be of this world, and we will not take it with us when we stand before God. He who knows our hearts and can see the slightest glimmer of inner jealousy when we give secretly, and He alone is praised. He can feel our desire for recognition when someone stands before the church and testifies of Him for an answer to one of our secret prayers. This is the greatest challenge in serving God secretly… taking ourselves willingly and completely out of the equation. It is more than just being obedient to the commandment of secrecy, it is about being able to do so while totally abandoning ourselves in the process.
There are men and women of great wealth who would never consider giving to the needy without those around them seeing what they had done. They give for the headlines in the newspaper, or a mention from the pulpit... and would not be inclined to do so without such recognition. Oswald Chambers spoke of it in this way...
"Or do you say- "I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching and saying “Well done."" - Oswald Chambers
To serve and pray faithfully in secret is holy and righteous in the eyes of God if our motivation is to humbly serve Him, but even in secret we could be serving God in such a manner as to say... "Look at me Lord, I am really something aren't I?" Or, "I'll do that, but first I would like you to do this for me." The only thing worse than being proud in the presence of man is to be proud and arrogant in the presence of God. There are no words and no offering that God has not given us. To claim personal ownership or pride in what already belongs to Him is foolhardy.
So, even in private, we are meant to be humble before God... perhaps especially in private! When we kneel before God in prayer we need to check our human baggage at the door. We need to reach out with a naked spirit that is stripped of all pretenses, and ask the Lord to heal us of our own dignity and pride.
"Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity." - Oswald Chambers
The deepest acts of faith are performed where no eyes see and no ears hear, but even so, they must be done with the right heart... in the right spirit. Are we serving God in obscurity, or do we require a receipt of some sort for our efforts? Let’s pray that we are given strength enough in our faith and humility to serve Him as we should… as Jesus did.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for allowing me to serve you out of my love for you alone. Father, give me a humble spirit and a love that allows me to give and pray in secrecy without any need for personal glory or recognition. Give me a strength of character that allows me to be satisfied in giving of myself when no other eyes see, but yours. Lord let me do for others and serve and pray to you out of nothing more than my overwhelming desire to please you. Speak to me in the quiet of my closet and reveal your will to me regarding those things you would have me do for your glory. Lord, when I must serve you in a public manner, help me to be humble and never let me claim the slightest credit for those things. Let all the blessings you have bestowed upon me be like the rain that rises up from the sea, runs off the mountain into the rivers and streams, then flows back to the sea from which it came. Let all I do be for your edification and use in your kingdom. May all the glory return to you because I am not the master, but simply your humble servant. I am not the rain, but only the cloud that delivers it. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who performs wonderful miracles and does amazing things. Holy are you who hears my secret prayers, and witnesses all that I do that no other eyes are meant to see. Great and Holy are those deeds and mercies which I carry secretly to my grave for they will rise up with me like gleaming treasure upon the arrival of your Son Jesus and will adorn me like elegant robes on the day of my judgement. Only on that day will the glory you have allowed me to witness be seen by all, and will I be blessed by you as a promised reward for having served you alone. Glory to you on the highest! Greater than all are you, and merciful and full of grace your love and goodness that is poured out over the world and all your creation. Receive my secret prayers, worship, and obedience to your will today, and be pleased in all I do for you which is the hidden fruit of my love for you, and concealed beneath the branches of the vine which is Jesus Christ. And all those who kneel in secret before you whisper Amen in your presence… in their hidden places.
Amen!
“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!”
Psalm 57:5 ESV
““For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:34-36 ESV
Rich Forbes