Jesus Quest #6: Do Secret Good Works
This Quest will reveal so much about our need for credit and affirmation.
The Secret Challenge: Doing Good in the Shadows
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” These words from Jesus in Matthew 6:1 cut straight to the heart of a struggle we all face—the desire to be noticed, appreciated, and affirmed for the good we do.
This week, I’m inviting you to join me in a challenge that might be harder than you expect: Do one good work every day, and tell absolutely no one about it. It can be small or great, significant or simple, but it must remain your secret. You have to take it to the grave.
Sound extreme? Perhaps. But I believe this challenge will reveal something profound about our hearts and transform how we understand what Jesus really meant about secret giving and genuine righteousness.
The Heart Behind the Challenge
When Jesus spoke about doing good works in secret, He was exposing a fundamental truth about human nature: we crave recognition. We want credit. We need to be seen. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with being appreciated—but when the recognition becomes the reason we do good, we’ve missed the entire point.
In Matthew 6, Jesus describes people who announce their giving with trumpets, pray loudly on street corners, and make sure everyone sees their fasting. His assessment is striking: “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” In other words, the applause, the reputation, the pat on the back—that’s it. That’s all they get. The transaction is complete. The heavenly reward? Forfeited for the sake of earthly acclaim.
Today, we might call this “virtue signaling”—broadcasting our good deeds on social media, casually mentioning our volunteer work, or ensuring others know about our generosity. We’ve become sophisticated at making our righteousness known while maintaining plausible deniability about our motives. “I’m just raising awareness,” we say. “I’m inspiring others.” And sometimes, that may be true. But often, if we’re honest, we’re just looking for affirmation.
This challenge is designed to interrupt that pattern. When you know that no one—not your spouse, not your best friend, not your social media followers—will ever know about your good deed, something shifts. The only possible motivation left is the genuine desire to do good and honor God. It strips away the secondary gains and forces us to confront: Why am I really doing this?
What This Week Will Teach You
As you undertake this challenge, here’s what I believe you’ll discover:
First, you’ll realize how much you depend on external validation. The urge to share will be almost overwhelming at times. You’ll feel the uncomfortable tension of doing something praiseworthy that will never be praised.
This discomfort is actually diagnostic. It shows us how much of our identity and sense of worth is tied to others’ perception of us. If we do something bad we always want to hide that like Adam and Eve did, but if we do a good thing we really hope others know about it.
Second, you’ll experience a strange new freedom. Once you get past the initial discomfort, something liberating happens. You begin to do good simply for the sake of good. You’re free to act motivated by compassion or conviction rather than image management.
This is the freedom Jesus is offering all of us. When our Father who sees in secret becomes our only audience, we can give, serve, and love without the additional need to insure everyone knows about it.
Third, you’ll begin to understand what Jesus meant by treasure in heaven. When Jesus says our Father who sees in secret will reward us, He’s not just promising some distant, abstract payoff. He’s describing a different economy entirely—one where your deeds and rewards are between you and God alone.
There’s an intimacy in secret goodness. It becomes a private conversation between you and your Creator. No one else knows, but He knows.
You come to truly hope that God will get all the glory from the smile on the face of the person you helped anonymously, to the small way you made someone’s day easier without them knowing it was you. These become treasures that rust and thieves cannot destroy, because they’re not stored in your reputation but in the Lord’s own memory forever.
Making It Practical
So what does this look like practically?
It could be:
Paying for someone’s coffee or meal without them knowing it was you
Picking up litter in your neighborhood when no one is watching
Sending an anonymous encouraging note to someone struggling
Doing a chore that someone else in your household normally does, without mentioning it
Giving money to someone in need through a third party
Letting someone merge in traffic or have a parking space that should be yours with unusual grace
Returning a shopping cart that someone abandoned in the parking lot
The point isn’t the magnitude of the action but the purity of the motive. You’re training your heart to do good for its own sake, with God as your only witness.
The Invitation
For one week, commit to daily secret goodness. Fight the urge to share. Resist the temptation to hint. Take it to the grave.
And in the process, discover what Jesus knew all along: that the Father who sees in secret rewards in ways that human applause never can.
This week, let’s find out what kind of people we really are—and what kind of people we want to become.
Are you in?
Watch JesusQuest #5: Doing Secret Good Works by clicking the video below
P.S. If you take on this quest, we'd love to hear about your discoveries. Share your stories with our community—your experience might encourage someone else to see children through Jesus' eyes.