Search My Motives - Day 18

Today's word is motive. Motive can be defined as a reason for doing something or desire that causes a person to act.

The motives are the very root of our actions. Motives can also be called desires. When we ask the Lord to examine our motives we are asking Him to get to the root of the real reason that we do what we do and say what we say.

Here are a couple of scriptures that refer to our motives.

“The LORD’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive.” (Proverbs 20:27, NLT)

“People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives.” (Proverbs 16:2, NLT)

“For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing].” (2 Corinthians 5:10, AMP)

We can see from these verses that our motives precedes our actions. And God sees and knows our motives when sometimes we don't know or recognize our motives. We can think that we are doing things for the right reason but actually our motives can be slightly off.

We are born again by believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth that Jesus is the Son of God and He is our Lord. God's spirit recreates our spirit at that exact moment and we have His nature inside of us.  As a child of God we desire to have pure motives all of the time and in every situation. It is only natural for the children of God to want to act like their father. Our nature has changed. Yet there are times that we yield ourselves to the flesh or our carnal mind and are influenced by wrong motives.

This is what we mentioned in yesterday's video when Paul identified that struggle in Romans chapter 7. The flesh and the spirit are in a constant struggle with each other.

Just because we are born again and now have God's nature in our spirit does not mean that we are perfected in our soul and body.

So the question becomes how can we be born again and operate from the wrong motives? Again, our motives are not saved, and re-created, it is our spirit that is born again and re-created. We still must renew our minds with God's word, and submit our whole being to him each day. In this way He can show us our motives, and also teach us and train us to operate from motives that are in line with his word.

How important is it to operate from the right motives? It is extremely important to make sure that we are constantly in contact with the Holy Spirit, and at the same time, judging ourselves to make sure that we're not doing anything from selfish or self-centered motives.

Take some time right now, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how important it is to have the right motives. Then submit your will to the Father and consecrate your motives to Him.