MOTIVES
And though I
bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profits me nothing.1 Corinthians 13:3
Have you ever taken time to think about the
reason why you do the things you
do? Or the reason why other people do what they do? Behind
every action there is a reason - or motive. Motive is simply the reason behind what we do.
Have you ever had a situation where someone
became close to you and seemed
to be very interested in your welfare only for you to realize later that they were just
pretending? Yes, people can act very nicely to
others just for the sake of something they need or want from them. Sometimes good deeds can be
done for the wrong reasons. Even
acts of kindness can be done for the wrong reasons.
Wrong motives are not always known. Many times the
people with the wrong motives do not even
know that they have wrong motives. They
might have had those motives for so long that they are not aware of its presence. Motives such as the need
for acceptance or the need to be
recognized or the need to always outshine everyone else can be part of our lives without us knowing.
They can drive us to great
achievements but those achievements will not give us fulfillment because the motive behind them is
wrong. Wrong motives eventually
produce hypocrites.
God examines our motives before He sees our
actions. He looks into our hearts
before He looks at what we are doing. He is more interested in our hearts and the desires of our hearts more than
the outward show that we put up for others to
see. Always remember that the value
of your actions is determined by the value of the motive that inspired it.
Prayer: Ask
the Lord to examine your motives and help you to keep your motives pure and Christ-like.
Scriptural Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
