Matthew 6

Jesus continues his rabbinic teaching. Generosity is never done before an audience, only God. Same with prayer. Audiences lead us to impress others.  God cares about where our hearts are when we do things. Jesus gives a model of prayer in what we call The Lord's Prayer. Notice Jesus emphasizes the "forgiving part." Forgiving mans to cancel the debt. It has nothing to do with fairness or getting what's owed you. You make a choice not to be burdened by what you expect from another. Debtor is probably a better translation from the Greek. This apart of the Bible was written in Greek.

Fasting gets the same treatment as prayer and giving. No audience! All three are important. Don't empty their importance by trying to impress others. To summarize, Jesus says that proper prayer, fasting (abstaining, especially from eating, for a period of time in order to devote more time and attention to God,) and giving are all counted in heaven. Earthly impressing of people will pass away. Live a life investing in things which will last!

Money cannot be a rival for God. Many people will do all sorts of things for money and would never dream of putting that kind of effort into God. God last, money doesn't. Jesus knows our next complaint, "But you don't know how…if I don't slave for more money!" Jesus tells us to stop our worrying. God will take care of us. If we go back to the beginning of the chapter, generosity is actually a practice that helps money lose its grip on us.