Secret Acts Of Obscure Love
You may feel down because your acts of love and service are not as public as others. Some preach to thousands from a stage or Instagram. You serve in obscurity.
Some receive applause and retweets. You receive backlash for being faithful.
Your acts of love and service may feel menial. They may never been known outside of you and God. Because of this you may be tempted to give up or to boast of your good works. You must not. There is a special reward both in intimacy with God and in heaven for the many acts of love we do that no one ever knows. (Mat 6:1)
Don't give up in doing good when, in obscurity:
You are called to care for a loved one over many years.
You schedule times of prayer as a ministry and no one knows of it.
You give generously to others financially.
You counsel the brokenhearted in the shadows, not in the spotlight.
You work in healthcare and no one understands your sacrifices.
You minister in a small church.
You are faithful to your wife.
You raise your children in a godly manner.
It can be easy to want the acclaim and lifting up from many seeing your good deeds. I know I have felt it at times. But if I trust God and His timing, I trust that if he desires to give me a large platform, than I want to be faithful with it. And if He desires to keep me serving in obscurity, I want to be faithful in it. Ministry and serving are not my treasure, God is. We seek to serve because we love others, not ourself.
Will we seek His Kingdom if no one ever knows of ours? Or is building His Kingdom just a stepping stone to build ours?
My friends, do not grow weary in doing good. When you die and stand before God, one of the beauties is that you will see perfectly how meaningful the thousands of unseen and seemingly meaningless acts of love you gave were to people. Your acts of obscure love are worth more than precious gems before the Lord who sees all things.
It reminds me of a poem my grandfather shared with me once:
If God has called you to be truly like Jesus — He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience, that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other believers do things which He will not let you do.
Others who seem to be very religious and useful, may push themselves up to be admired, and scheme to carry out their plans — but you cannot. If you attempt it — you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes — but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so — He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or in having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries — but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold — a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward — while keeping you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit in you, which can only be produced in the shade.
God may let others be great — but He will keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit — but He will make you work and toil without others knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done. This to teach you the message of the Cross and humility.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time — which other Christians never seem distressed over.
So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own — and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.
If you absolutely give yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other Christian people say and do many things which you cannot.
However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life — then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven, the high calling of God.-George Watson
Seeking His Kingdom, not mine,
Josh.