“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-4 NASB1995)

All this comes down to a heart issue and to our motives for why we do what we do as those who profess faith in Jesus Christ and who claim him as Lord. Do we serve God to be noticed by other humans so that they will think well of us? Do we give to the poor and then have to announce our giving so that everyone can see how generous we are? And do we pattern our doing and giving and speaking after the ways of the world so that the world will like us? Or do we serve God humbly because we love God and want to obey him?

So, what about sharing our testimonies? Is that wrong? It depends on what we are sharing and what our motivation is for sharing it. The apostle Paul talked much about his life and ministry and the things which he did and said and how God was using him. Why did he do this? He did it so that the church, the body of Christ, would pray for him and his ministry. And why else? He did it to encourage the body of Christ in how God was using him for their own encouragement in their walks of faith in obedience to the Lord.

So, this is not teaching us that we must be completely silent about how God is using us for his glory if the Lord is leading us in what to say, and if our testimonies are for the encouragement of the body of Christ, and if they are so the body will pray for us, and if God is the one who gets the glory and not us. For when I was growing up we had missionaries who came and spoke at our church gatherings and who told us their stories of how God was using them in other people’s lives, and that was definitely for our encouragement.

And knowing what they were going through and how God was using them helped us to know better how to pray for them, too. So we must be very careful here that we do not cast judgment on those who are sharing their testimonies for these kinds of good reasons, because that is not what this passage of Scripture is referring to. It is talking strictly about those who love to brag about what they are doing so that everyone will think well of them. They want the praises of other humans more than they want God’s approval.

So, in all that we do and say we should pray and ask the Lord for wisdom to know what we should say and not say, and for what purpose. Is the purpose for self-exaltation and so everyone will think we are great? Or is the purpose to serve God and to do his will and to encourage the body of Christ in their own walks of faith in obedience to the Lord? And/or is it because we need people to pray for us because we are under severe persecution and the devil is hot on our trail? I pray God will guide us all in doing what is right by him.

Testing Our Motivations
An Original Work / April 27, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love