Striking the Balance in Ministry Between Authenticity and Transparency

"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."Practicing your righteousness before men." - Matthew 6:1 NIV

I struggle with this as I post the devotional thoughts that God gives me in my own daily devotions, but I assure you - none of this is my righteousness.

"... to be seen ..." That goes to motive!

Motives can be infuriatingly invisible and difficult to discern ... even within ourselves ...

... especially within ourselves.

Where is the balance?

"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. " - Jesus

?Where is the balance?

?Authenticity and transparency ... ... Humility and reality

?Why write about our spiritual journeys?

I do it as a journal.

See the connection? Journey --- Journal!

Journal your journey.

When I write about it, is not my devotional life; it flows from my devotional life.

Sometimes, it is gasping and grasping.

I am spiritual loser and an oaf apart from grace.

I must admit that and I must admit it in public. Perhaps it is an encouragement to others.

Perhaps it merely fulfills a function in my own life.

I need this stuff to survive and I need accountability to you and others in order to stay on track.

There must be a balance.

In the secret place, I assure you, I must confess my secret sins.

In the secret place, I must find the intimacy I crave, with God.

In the secret place, I am my most vulnerable, broken self.

I do not show all of that. I admit it, but I do not and cannot display it with the same honesty and authentic intensity that I expose to the One who already knows.

This One already sees.

One I have discovered in secret is that I have no secrets from The Other, the One, the God who fashioned me, observes me, scrutinizes me and ...

... loves me!

All of this preaching is always directed, first, ?toward me and a part of my permanent record.

If no one ever reads what I post, I still post.

I must.

But it is what happens below the surface that I can never adequately show, because it cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Still, I must beware that I am not trying to practice righteousness before men ... mainly because I practice so little and that which I do practice, only comes through me by grace; it is not my own.

There is no reward for it... which is fine. What I have not generated requires no reward. The reward is in the doing, being, receiving, and living.

Find the balance and strike it!