Devotion:
Read Matthew 6:2-6, 16-18.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Movement in England in the 18th century, developed three rules for those early Methodists as they met in their “small groups.” They are still known as the “General Rules” of our church and were summed up several years ago by Bishop Reuben Job this way: “Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.” That last rule is our focus for today. It encourages the followers of Jesus Christ to practice regular spiritual disciplines in their life that will nourish and guide their relationship with God. Those would include practices like prayer, Bible reading and worship with other Christians.
In this Scripture passage for today, Jesus teaches on three of those practices: giving, praying and fasting. Notice that he assumes a person devoted to God will be doing these things. His focus is to present some words of caution and guidance about how to do them. These particular practices are focused on our personal relationship with God. So we should not be using them to impress other people, but only to deepen our relationship with our Lord.
I commend to you these rules to live your life by: Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.
Personal Worship Option:
What spiritual discipline do you need to increase in your daily life so you can deepen your love for God?
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