Love is able to be quiet when credit is not given for something you have worked on even to the point of sacrifice.     Pride reacts when not given credit it thinks it deserves.

Love doesn’t verbally protest to let others know that it was you that was responsible for the greater part of the success when others receive more recognition.    Love doesn’t jockey for position or publicly announce all that one has done for the cause.

This is what it means in I Corinthians 13:4 – “Charity vaunteth not itself”.    Love doesn’t have to boast or to seek honor and glory.

We will never receive full credit for what we do down here.    For believers, that is the purpose of the Judgment Seat of Christ, a time when our works and motives will be examined to determine our reward in Heaven.

Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned, only received (Romans 6:23), but for those that have received God’s gift of salvation in His Son, Christ Jesus, they will be rewarded for their faithfulness and work done from a motive of love (I Corinthians 13:1-3).

There will be lots of surprises at that judgment.    I believe the greatest rewards will be given not necessarily to those that have done the most visible work, but to those that have toiled in obscurity without complaint.

Three times in Matthew 6, Jesus said, “…thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly”.    This is a precious promise, but one that is challenging, too.   It is natural to want the limelight, but it is dangerous too.   We begin to think too highly of ourselves.

God may be permitting you to not receive credit in time in order that you might receive a greater reward in eternity.    You will be glad then that you were patient and didn’t protest over the times people overlooked your work.

One reason we boast is that we assume the credit is ours when it is not.    This is the truth given to a church that was gloating and proud over things which they had no right to do so – “…what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”    (I Corinthians 4:7).

Note the rhetorical question at the end, “…why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”    The word “glory” has the idea of boasting or vaunting.   If God has given me a gift, an opportunity and a healthy body to be successful then I ought to be quick to honor Him and give Him the glory rather than crowing about what I have accomplished.

Jordan’s good-bye meal before he left for his Costa Rica missions internship – with Bryan, Ashley, and Brighton.

Perhaps at church, at work, or in your home you aren’t receiving recognition or pats on the back for your contributions.   Remember that what is “done in secret shall be rewarded openly”.

Today die to self when you want to let others know your part of the project that has been overlooked.   God placed Joseph, Moses, Paul and many other great leaders in the Bible in utter obscurity for a period of time to humble them and teach them the value of being quiet.    If He is doing the same with you it is for a greater good than you can imagine and that He might be honored.