Are you aware of your motives?

Tom Crenshaw Jan. 28, 2022

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I am told that upwards of 90 percent of flying is done on autopilot. During the time the plane is on auto, the pilot can focus on other things like navigation, communication and systems operation. But when it comes to people, there's a great risk in allowing our motives to simply run unchecked, on auto pilot if you will. We need to continually be asking ourselves, "Why am I doing what I am doing?"

We may think what we are doing is right, "but the Lord examines the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

Our purpose in serving others should always be to please God, and Him alone. God is interested in our motives even more than our actions. First Corinthians 4:5 says, "That when Jesus comes again, He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God."

Author and radio broadcaster, Steve Brown, is one of my favorite preachers. His greatest strength as a preacher is his honesty and his vulnerability. There is little room for pretense in his preaching, and consequently he is the kind of person I like to listen to because I know he's real.

Many years ago, I clipped the following quote from one of his sermons, and his words struck a chord with my heart. He writes, "Motives have a way, if you let them, of getting all out of balance. When I first became a Christian, I had all kinds of fantastic motives. I really wanted to serve and my heart was pure.

Now I'm a pastor and people call me reverend; I sometimes find myself keeping the machinery of the organization going because I like to see the little wheels run. Sometimes I think that I help people, and talk to them about the love of God, because I want them to like me. Sometimes I go to the hospital because I want people to think I'm compassionate. Sometimes I witness because, horror of horrors, pastors are expected to witness. And sometimes I have to go to my knees and say, 'Father, clean me up. Make me pure.'"

I've been there and done that, and I suspect you have as well. There are many times when I've done the right thing for the wrong reason, when I have done something with the hope of currying favor with some important person, or gone to the hospital, not because of compassion for the one in the bed but because the one in the bed expected me to be there. Mixed motives are something that we all have, and when we recognize them, we should pray the simple prayer Steve suggests, "Lord, make me pure."

When we are serving, we should be aware of our motives. Are they pure? Would God be pleased with my real reason for doing what I'm doing? If your answer is no, be careful. Don't use that as an excuse for not serving, not ministering, not witnessing, but instead ask Him to clean up your motives, and give you a pure heart so when you serve, you serve out of your love for Him. Yes, I know this isn't easy, but God will help us if we ask Him.

I close with an old legend of a desert wanderer who found a crystal spring of unsurpassed freshness The water was so pure that he decided to bring some to his king. Barely satisfying his own thirst, he filled a leather bottle with the water and carried it many days beneath the desert sun before he reached the palace.

When he finally laid his offering at the feet of his sovereign, the water had become stale because of the old container in which it had been stored, But the king would not let his faithful subject even imagine that it was unfit for use. He tasted it with expressions of gratitude and delight, and the loyal man went away with a heart filled with gladness.

After he had gone, others sampled the water and expressed their surprise that the king had even pretended to enjoy it. "Ah," said he, "it was not the water I tasted, but the love that prompted the offering."

May we continually pray that all our daily acts of service, no matter how small they may be, are pure and prompted by nothing else but love, love for the person and for the Master whose love should always be the measure and standard for our service.

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Tom Crenshaw serves as Connections Pastor of the New Monmouth Baptist Church (non denominational) where he previously served as a three year interim.He has been married to Jean for almost 50 years, and they have four children, all of whom are teachers.Tom loves perennial gardening, umpiring high school baseball, coaching baseball and football, fishing for small mouth bass, rooting for his favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, and listening to ‘real’ country music, the classic kind. Learn More »

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