Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:1-4

One of the most annoying things to see nowadays on social media, is anytime somebody does anything helpful or kind for someone, they have to post it on social media. Everyone needs to let the world know they did something good, we even see this at Church, people need to announce everytime they do anything helpful. Why do we do this? Well the honest truth is we want the credit, we want the glory, we want everyone to know we are great people. This is part of the problem with our sinful nature, pride.

The problem is Jesus said “Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before people or you will have no reward in Heaven ” You might have gotten alot of likes or shares on your social media but you lost your reward in Heaven. It sounds harsh but this is what God said, you have a choice , either the vanity of this world or a reward in Heaven. Now are we saying nobody should do anything “good”, of course not, but everyone doesn’t need to know about it. Don’t worry God knows everything you’re doing, if you do something worthy for His Kingdom, you will be reward for it.

It shows you how far away the world is from the will of God. We see celebrities trying to get in those photo opportunities of mingling with the common folk or actually helping someone. It’s mostly all fake, why do we need to take the dignity of people for them to receive help? It’s a common practice on social media to pick a random homeless person and buy them something, that sounds great. But what if you were that homeless person? Would you want your face posted all over the world as a pawn in the game? Of course not, everyone deserves some respect and dignity , including the “victims” in need

So what should we do? Follow the words of our Lord and Savior, help the poor and needy, but don’t tell anyone. If you’re making donations , make them anonymous. Do we really need your name on a building or park because you had some cash? Now of course when we do help our neighbors, they will know who we are, but we don’t have to flaunt the situation on Social Media. I’m sure your neighbor has been through enough embarrassment and dread, they don’t need their name and face dragged through the community. 

Again we see this is ultimately a heart issue, why are you actually helping these people? Are you just helping to make yourself feel better or puff up your ego? Or are you helping them because you love God and love your neighbor? Because you want to Glorify God by being the Salt and Light of Christ! Let’s hope one day we will hear the words “Well Done Good and Faithful SERVANT” (Matthew 25:23) Amen!