Hello, my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.

This is your daily reading of the Bible from a progressive point of view.

In a bit I will read the New Testament lessons selected from the Revised Common Lectionary for this very day.

The reading is understandable.

I use the Message version Relatable.

Please listen to the points to ponder and applicable with action steps you can take.

We pray and are done in less than 10 minutes.

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Here's today's reading.

And we're reading today from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 1 through 6 from the Message the world is not a stage.

Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it.

It might be a good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding when you do something for someone else.

Don't call attention to yourself.

You've seen them in action, I'm sure.

Play actors, I call them, treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate.

As long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds, they get applause.

True, but that's all they get.

When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks.

Just do it quietly and unobtrusively.

That is the way your God who conceived you in love.

Working behind the scenes helps you out.

Pray with simplicity.

And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either.

All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for 15 minutes of fame.

You do you think God sits in a box seat?

Here's what I want you to do.

Find a quiet, secluded place where you won't be tempted to roleplay before God.

Just be there as simply and honestly as you can and manage.

The focus will shift you to God and you will begin to sense his grace.

Well, my friends, I thank you for spending a few minutes here with me today contemplating this passage of scripture from the message Matthew 6 and Jesus saying here be careful not to make a performance out of being good when you help out.

Don't make it a show when you pray.

Find a quiet place and be simple, honest and present.

The world isn't a stage for our spirituality.

Let's take this a little further with three points to ponder.

The first one is this authentic faith chooses substance over spectacle.

Jesus isn't knocking public faith.

He's warning against performative piety, that is doing good to get credit.

Praying to be seen A progressive approach recognizes how public virtue signaling can mask injustice.

We don't need louder spiritual branding.

We need deeper spiritual integrity.

Where there's giving, allyship or advocacy.

The test is does it actually bless people in the margins?

My wife and I have been married for 34 years.

We've raised three adult children who are thriving.

And now we have a couple granddaughters who give us great delight.

They even think my jokes are funny.

And those ordinary moments remind me the most real things often happen off stage.

Quiet kindness.

Steady presence.

Love without applause.

A second point to ponder.

Quiet practices fuel public justice.

Jesus invites us to a quiet secluded place so we won't role play before God.

That solitude isn't an escapism.

It's the changing.

It's the charging station before we have courageous action.

Progressive faith links contemplation and compassion.

Personal prayer turns into public solidarity.

In my weekly podcast it helps people impacted by cancer to help cope with hope and humor.

I see simple practices like breathing exercises and prayer can really study someone before a tough diagnosis or appointment.

And that quiet courage often shows up as rides to treatment centers, meals on somebody's front porch.

Be an advocate for equitable, clear voter engagement.

Private prayer and public justice are not competitors.

They're partners.

One more point to ponder.

Decenter ego center God and neighbor.

It says here that the focus will shift from you to God.

And Jesus says and when our focus shifts to God's grace, it it naturally expands to our neighbors.

And progressive faith decouples worth from visibility.

We're not the main character love is that frees us to cheer others on, especially folks historically dismissed or unseen.

It's like when I stick with my teams.

The Colts and the Pacers and the Fever and IU basketball and football.

Some years are great, like this past year been great.

But other years are down.

You are a loyal fan regardless.

It's not about getting the spotlight.

It's about showing up for your team.

The community.

The people who need you need steady, stubborn love.

So let's talk here about an action step Practice one quiet act of generosity in five minutes of simple prayer.

No stage, no spotlight.

Just sincerity.

In the area of generosity, choose one concrete need that you know about in your community.

Maybe it's the caregiver who needs a break or a family navigating treatment or somebody needs a meal or a gift card or a ride or a donation or just an encouraging note.

Do without posting about it or seeking credit.

Prayer.

Pick a place.

Pick a quiet place, maybe a chair by a window in your home or a park bench or a trail or an empty seat in a public place.

And maybe set the timer on your watch or your phone for five minutes and then just be quiet and just say, here I am.

Breathe and name some real things in your life people.

Fear, gratitude, fatigue, hope.

Just name them and let the focus shift from you to God's grace and you can end it all with this civilized line.

Something like God, guide me to love someone well today.

Good stuff.

We're gonna come back and have a prayer together.

But when we do, before we do, I want to remind you that we have a guide for you called the ABC 1233 Bible Study Guide.

It's going to help you with your daily home Bible study.

Go over to our website, voiceofgoddaily.com that's where you can have it.

Let's pray together.

God of quiet rooms and crowded waiting rooms.

Teach us the courage of simplicity.

Deliver us from the itch to perform and the pressure to impress.

Meet us in ordinary places.

Kitchen tables, trailheads, hospital halls, car rides to appointments, the living room where maybe your granddaughter makes you giggle and let our private prayers become public goodness.

Meals shared without fanfare, rides given without selfies, advocacy offered without applause for people navigating bad things in their life like cancer.

Give steady companions and moments of relief and for caregivers, strength and maybe a nap that they didn't know that they needed.

And for our community's justice that is concrete and compassionate.

So shift our focus from our ego to your grace so neighbors become visible and hope becomes practical.

And when you falter, remind us your love is not a stage, it's home.

Amen.

My friend, I am delighted you chose to join me for today's reading.

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Thanks much.

My name is Dr. Brad Miller and I'll be right here tomorrow with your Daily Bible Refresh.

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Remember, God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.