When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

—Matthew 6:3–4

Maybe you were a great achiever academically. As a young boy or girl, you were winning the spelling bees. You always got As on your report cards. Maybe you were given some special honor, such as a scholarship to attend a great college, because of your incredible abilities. Or perhaps you were a big sports star. You always excelled in sports, and you have plenty of trophies and ribbons to prove it.

Me? I always had those honorable mention ribbons. Do you know what those are? They are the ribbons they give you when you really do poorly, but they don’t want you to feel too bad for yourself. You know, after first, second, third, fourth, and fifth have crossed the finish line, and an hour later, someone comes across, they say, “Give him an honorable mention ribbon.” They were usually purple, although I don’t know why that was. I had a room filled with purple ribbons.

But in heaven, there will be many rewards for those who have been faithful to God over the years. Even the smallest and most insignificant gesture on behalf of God’s kingdom will not be overlooked by our Heavenly Father. Jesus spoke of our service to God, pointing out that even though it may not be seen by people, it is indeed seen by Him: “Your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”

One day in our future, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the Lord will reward us openly.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. —James 5:14

I believe that God heals today. We know He has miraculously built into the human body a natural process in which it heals over time. But I believe God can quicken the healing process.

I also believe that He can do a miracle when we have been told there is no hope. I have seen so many of these miracles myself. God promises His healing touch and tells us that by His stripes we are healed. So we should ask God to heal us when we are facing sickness.

In James 5, we are given the scriptural pattern for healing: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

It is interesting that the Bible does not say, “Is anyone among you sick? Then go find a faith healer.” I’m not suggesting that miracles didn’t take place in the early church because they certainly did. I’m not saying that healing wasn’t done by faith because it was. My point is that it never was the focus of the apostles. The early church didn’t follow signs and wonders; signs and wonders followed them. This is an important distinction.

We can go to God and ask Him to heal. I thank God that healing is available to us today. But we make a mistake when we focus on phenomena. Instead, we should focus on the proclamation of God’s Word and leave the miracles, healings, and the rest up to God to do as He sovereignly chooses.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. —Romans 1:16

A woman went to a doctor with both ears severely burned. The doctor said, “In all of my years of practice, I have never seen anything quite like this. How did you burn your ears?”

“Well,” she said, “I was ironing and watching television. Suddenly, the telephone rang. I answered the iron instead of the phone and burned my ear.”

“That’s horrible!” the doctor said. “But how did you burn your other ear?”

“Can you believe it?” she said. “The idiot called back!”

It seems to me that, like this woman, some people in the church today are preoccupied. In many ways, we have lost our focus and have missed what our priorities should be. For one, I think we have lost sight of who our real enemies are. Is it Hollywood? Is it the government? According to the Bible, our enemies are the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

I think we also have forgotten what we are really for, as well as the real weapons of our warfare. Are our real weapons boycotts and protesting? No. Primarily, they are prayer and the Word of God.

Lastly, I think we have forgotten what our real message is. Is our primary message that we are against homosexuality or that we are against abortion? No, our primary message should not be negative, but positive: It is the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

My fear is that more people know what we as Christians are against than what we are for. Do they know what we believe? Do they know what we think about Jesus Christ?

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord. —Isaiah 54:17

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus made a fascinating statement that some have misunderstood. Speaking of believers, He said, “They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:18). Some, of course, have misunderstood this and have held snake-handling services. But that is not trusting the Lord; it is testing the Lord.

Here is what this statement does mean: If you are a Christian, then you are indestructible until God is done with you. There is a day appointed for your death, and you really have nothing to say about when that day is.

Case in point: Paul the apostle was shipwrecked on an island, and as he was warming himself by the fire, a venomous snake bit him. So he simply picked it up and threw it into the fire. Everyone was waiting for Paul to die, but he didn’t die. Why? His time wasn’t up; God still had significant work for him to do. But when your time is up, it’s up. And Paul’s day eventually came.

Before that day, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper,” as Isaiah 54:17 says. That means God will keep you and protect you. Even if there is some plot against you, it won’t succeed if that is not your time.

So stop worrying about when you will die because you have nothing to say about it. It isn’t up to you. The Bible says, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Does that mean you can eat anything you want? I think you should exercise and eat properly. That will improve the quality of your life. But ultimately, the quantity is up to God.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death. —Job 14:14

In one of the oldest books of the Bible, the book of Job, the question is asked, “Can the dead live again?” That is something everyone should ask in life: “What’s going to happen to me when I die? What is there beyond this place called Earth?”

Before I became a Christian, I thought about this quite often. I was only a teenager, and it was sort of a heavy subject to be contemplating. But I did find myself thinking about death on a semiregular basis. It isn’t that I was obsessed with death or that I wanted to die. My belief at the time was that once people stopped living, they simply ceased to exist. I was not certain there was a place called heaven. I was definitely hoping there wasn’t a place called hell. My conclusion was that when you’re gone, you’re gone. It’s all over with.

We all know that death is coming, but what happens beyond the grave? According to the Bible, there is life beyond the grave. And because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, and because He rose from the dead three days later, we as Christians have the hope that when we die, we will go immediately into the presence of God and into a wonderful place called heaven.

That is why the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is one of the most important biblical truths there is. The resurrection of Christ from the dead, next to the Crucifixion itself, is the most significant event in church history. It isn’t a peripheral issue; it’s foundational. It’s bedrock. It’s the bottom line.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013