1"Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
There are many forms of charitable deeds. It could be the giving of time, money, or talent. But when we do charitable deeds we should be doing it for the pleasure of God. The rewards He can give us for our deeds are much greater than any we can receive from anyone else.
Have you ever been in a group where you pick Secret Santas or Secret Pals? Everyone in the group draws names and you become the Secret Santa or Secret Pal of the person whose name you drew. You then do little things or give little gifts to the person whose name you drew for a period of time, all the while trying to keep them from finding out who you are. There is a pleasant joy in seeing someone really enjoying something special you did for them without them even knowing who did it. Do your charitable deeds in secret. You will be surprised at how much you enjoy it.
A couple years ago we decided to give some stock to our church to meet part of our pledge of giving to our church. We felt very good about giving such a donation, but that meant that we did not need to give our weekly envelope as the collection plate was passed down the pew. That was very uncomfortable, passing the collection plate down without putting anything in it, not because we felt we weren't helping our church enough financially, but because we were worried about what those around us would think if they noticed we didn't put anything in the collection plate. This was a reminder to me that we should never judge others by what we see of their charitable deeds. We have no idea of what they might be doing in secret. God prefers our deeds in secret.
We have all been taught to say thank you when someone does something nice for us. And when we do something nice for someone else, it feels good when they thank us. But what about those times when you do something nice for someone else and they don't show any appreciation for it? Sometimes they even get upset about it because they don't recognize it as a good thing the way you do. This is almost harder than the more obvious part of this lesson which says to do the deed in secret. A charitable deed done in the right spirit needs no recognition or appreciation from the receiver. God our Father in heaven sees all our deeds and recognizes and appreciates the work we do. His appreciation is the only reward we should seek. Your charitable deeds will not go unrecognized by God.