Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Motives

Read Philippians 1:15-18

"What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." Philippians 1:18 NKJ

It seems that a Christian's motives are called into question a lot these days. There are bad motives to be sure, and I believe there are degrees of acceptable motives: good, better, and best.

Using church attendance as an example, a bad motive would be to be seen socially for financial gain. The best motive would be to meet with God and worship Him.

Let's consider a good motive. You're having a bad day and you don't feel like going to church. Is it being a hypocrite in a situation like that to go since your best motive is not possible? Are you going out of legalism or to impress God? I say "no" to these questions. Perhaps you are going because it would violate your conscience to stay home. Maybe you are in church just to be obedient to the call of God and associate with like-minded believers. These are good motives.

When you are doing a work for the Lord, don't let anyone stop you by questioning your motive. If you've prayed and it seems right to you, then go forward in His service. God can give you all the grace you need and work on your motive until it becomes the best motive.

Prayer: Father I thank you for your wonderful grace which covers my imperfections. Please let my motives be only to please you and bring You glory. Amen

12 comments:

  1. Thank you Nancy. Sometimes we do things cause we have to.I hate getting that way.I want to have pure motives when I can. Like I love coming to your blog to visit, cause I enjoy what you write!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Terri - you were one of the first bloggers to come and visit my new blog. I always enjoy your writing, too and I love to hear what you are doing in your non-writing life as well. You are so real in telling us your feelings. I appreciate that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent post Nancy. I actually didn't go to church on Sunday because I was feeling really negative about someone and it felt hypocritical to go. But now I think that was wrong of me.
    Thanks for the post!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jessica - It just gets you, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome post! I think it is important to do things because they are right and hopefully the 'want to' feeling tags along eventually!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post! Sometimes listening to others can make a person second guess themselves. Before long the right and wrong of it gets lost along the way. You are so right to suggest prayer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just saw your note on arsie 2 write. Arise 2 write will have it's first blog birthday around the 20th of this month and All Gods Creatures had it's 1st blog birthday in November 09.

    Thank you for faithfully leaving such sweet comments.
    Andrea

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you all for your lovely comments. Andrea, I am in awe at how much you have accomplished in one year. I'll say more when the date commes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nancy: You are so wise. Sometimes I think about motives,and know I must judge my own but no one else's.

    Thanks for your posts!
    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  10. How true. We have to judge our own motives and act accordingly. Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete