God Sees It All

Matthew 6:6

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

In our world of social media – everyone posts everything – it seems. People post what they eat. People post what they do. People post how they feel. People post their anger – their joy – and their mixed feelings. They not only post words – they post pictures – selfies – videos – and more.

Programs like Twitter – Facebook – Snap Chat – YouTube – Instagram – and more make connecting on a surface level pretty easy. We have thousands of friends and even post things that tests our friendships – if you read this and are truly my friend – post one word on how we met and repost this on your site – or I will remove you from my friend’s list.

Some do not want an Internet footprint or want to reduce their footprint (good luck). In the Christian world we do all of the above and at times I have seen prayer requests online. My hope is that when folks type praying – they truly take the time to pray.

Today’s passage is all about our private and public faith expression. Here is today’s passage in partial context. Matthew 6:5–8 – ⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Now – I’m not saying – nor do I believe the Bible is saying – we should never share our prayers or our prayer requests. What I believe we need to be careful to consider is the spirit in which we share. Are we looking to highlight that we are praying? Are we looking to elevate ourselves in some fashion? Are we looking for a spiritual pat on the back – or are we being humble and truly seeking prayers or offering prayers? We could use this thought process for our social media posting as well. I know people who post a selfie – it seems – every day – even multiple times a day.

Whether we are posting to social media – keeping things close to the vest – or somewhere in between – we need to remember that God sees everything and knows our heart and our motivation. We cannot hide from God – even if we can hide from others.

Let us consider – as we walk with Christ – to elevate Him above all and to humble ourselves. John the Baptist had it right when he said this about Jesus – John 3:30 – He must become greater; I must become less. Let’s remember this in all we do and all we post.

Just something to think about today as you go on your way.

P.S. Please keep the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference in your prayers as we meet this week. Keep up with the chatter on Twitter at #BWCUMC16. I’ll be posting some things for the folks back home for sure!