Shine from Within (Wednesday, Week 11, Year II)

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Every conscious act must have been INTENDED: must have been thought about, aimed at, prepared for before it is finally done. In order to assess any human action, the intention of the doer must be put into strict consideration. Not just the act itself, the intention matters a lot. To be good or to do good is GOOD & COMMENDABLE if the intention is good. But when there's a vested selfish interest which is evil, that so-called goodness must be seen and understood as ill-intentioned no matter how good it may appear.

From the above background, we can now understand what Jesus really meant when he warned his disciples "not to PARADE their good deeds before people in order to ATTRACT their notice" (cf. Matt. 6:1-6). In such context, the word "PARADE" is negative, having a strong sense of ostentatious display or show-offism in order to win people's attention or admiration. You get the point! It's all about doing good deeds for goodness sake, not doing them in order to draw attention to oneself --- in order to merely show off.
Many of us are attention-seekers. Many things that we do are done not just for the good of others but primarily for our own worldly glorification and other selfish interests. People show off, put up fake versions of themselves, package and repackage themselves on the social media, and trumpet their so-called charity initiatives in order to have a huge fan base, to be admired, worshipped and adored.

We don't need to show-off in order to inspire. Elijah didn't need to "show-off" his prophetic prowess in order to inspire Elisha. He went about doing his job as a prophet with utmost commitment and seriousness, and may not have even noticed that his simple but commendable good deeds were drawing people closer to God. 
The influence Elijah had on Elisha was so strong that he (Elisha) consistently followed him, to the point of asking for a double portion of His spirit (cf. 2 Kings 2:6-14).

The punchline is that we must let our good deeds inspire and motivate people to work for God's glory, and shouldn't let our so-called good deeds turn us into demi-gods or inspire people to become SELFISHLY preoccupied with worldly glorification. Remember that "people who shine from within don't need the spotlight".

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