Measuring Your Motives

“You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.“ James 4:2-3 (ESV)

Have you ever been the recipient of a gift that was given with impure motives? When motives are not right, the gift loses its impact. How you give is just as important as what you give. How you serve is just as important as the act of serving. How you do life is just as important as what you do with your life. Motives matter to God.

God is all-knowing and all-seeing. In His omniscience, God detects the motives in which you operate your life. God looks beneath the surface of your good deeds to identify your true motives. Selfishness is an indicator of impure motives. Wrong motives will cause you to mistreat others in order to get what you want.

• “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.” Prov. 16:2 (ESV)

What if we started with a boldness to simply ask God? If there is something we need, what keeps us from asking God who is the Creator and Sustainer of life? Why do we try to take life into our own hands and allow impure motives to infiltrate our decisions? Let’s commit to go to God! He is our sufficiency!

Drawing Near,

Stephen Trammell
Lead Pastor
Follow me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stephentrammell