5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do:for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them:for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye:Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret:and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye:if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters:for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air:for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
(Can you add an inch to your height by thinking about it?)
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow:for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
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Comments by Joan Boney
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. 2 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.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:4 That thine alms may be in secret:and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
I am horrified when I see the world flaunting their works before men. They love to tell how much money they have given to such & such work.
There is a very wealthy Catholic woman who loved to tell me her mother had just given a building to a university and they had named the building after her family ... and how her family had given a scholarship for student at one of the schools ... and many other works done by herself and her mother.
If we have really done such, and go by the scriptures, no one would ever know we'd done this unless God had us use it as teaching example.
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At a place where I lived in another city, the people across the street from me did home schooling. They also claimed to be Christian.
One day I looked out my window and was horrified to see a group in front of their house, holding hands, standing in a big circle, and praying.
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Often in football games and other events, an athlete will show himself to be praying on the field after he makes a good play.
I hate seeing this.
And TV announcers often mention "our prayers are with him" ... whatever that might mean... Our prayers are to God not with another person ... and do our prayers mean anything to God?... if we really belong to God, they do. But these TV announcers are a very questionable thing ... hard to hear these things ... I just cry out to God in agony when I hear such things, for it seems to me this reference to prayer makes sacred things profane.
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28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If we live in the world, we usually feel we have to live like the world.
A woman from the little village where I lived as a child sent a card telling me she was setting up a dinner at a local cafe for our high school classes' 60th reunion. On the card, she asked what we thought about this. (it was a form letter type card) I did not respond since there is no way I would be involved in this, having no interest at all in meeting with people to discuss past. Then this woman called me when I didn't respond. I told her I would not be attending this dinner therefore I didn't respond for I felt those attending should be the ones to respond.
The dinner was about 100 miles away from where I lived. The day of the dinner, we had very severe storms with rain, lightning, thunder, hail. As I sat peacefully at my house, I was so glad not to be trying to go to that dinner.
Had I gone to that dinner, I would have needed to buy clothes to wear which I did not want to buy nor wear.
I would have needed to rent a car for I wouldn't want to get out on road with my 21 year old car.
And I didn't want to go anyway. When I was in high school, all I wanted to do was get out of high school and leave. (No one was mean to me. I just didn't find it interesting.)
And it would have taken me away from the work assigned to me by God which is writing on the blog and exhorting the church in ways of God.
When the woman called me about this dinner, she asked what I'd been doing. I told her we have a blog and I have been writing exhortations for the church. She was completely silent, wanting to hear no more about this subject. Once I sent her some writings and she wrote and asked me not to send any more writings to her. She is a Methodist. (I did have a dream about her and she was holding a Bible but in real life she doesn't want to hear scripture nor things of God. She wants to hear what people are doing.)
Concerning obtaining "raiment" (clothing): My cleaning woman (a Catholic) asked me if I didn't feel I needed to keep up with other people in things like clothing and cars. She said she felt she should keep up with other people. I was a little shocked. I told her I never feel like I need to do this. There is no one on this earth that I'd rather be than me
I'm very thankful to God for HIS putting me where I live and for HIS having me do what I do.
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33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Since I was born again in 1975, I have really tried to find out what God wants me to do and do it ... Almost as soon as I was born again I saw the way to success (prosperity) was to seek the word of God on the matter at hand and to do the word of God. So that has been my goal.
And without thinking about things at all, things just came to me. I didn't try to get a house to live in. I don't try to get money yet it comes to me and I have plenty. I just try to find out what God wants me to do and do that. (We find out what God wants by prayer, Bible reading, and paying attention to those things brought to mind by the Holy Spirit.)
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Joshua 1
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
As a new Christian in 1975, I saw these 2 scriptures and I believed them and set about to do this knowing it was the way to prosper. (And it is!)
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34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow:for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
I hardly ever think of tomorrow any more. If we deal with today, I find it sufficient.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
There are many unexpected things ... but when we turn to God with the issue and do what we believe HE shows us, it always works out. None of us want to deal with these daily problems and we might even resent having that problem, but if we didn't have a problem would we ever turn to God?
And I find working through each problem by prayer and trying to find out how God wants me to handle the problem causes me to be conformed to HIS image as I try to follow HIM.