LEARNING DAILY

 

Proverbs 16:2, All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.

 

Proverbs 20:27, The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inner most being.

 

Proverbs 21:2, A man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.

 

 Long ago I had a plan about how I could best serve the Lord. It was a good plan, one that I would have been thrilled to be able to do. It was an ambitious plan and I believed the Lord would provide the finances to complete the task I believed needed to be done. I ignored those who doubted and continued to believe. It was a good and honorable plan, but God knows the beginning and the end; He took me to a different destination with a different outcome – greater than I could imagine. I look back on those plans and I can see only disaster would have been the outcome.

 

I have learned and seen that Believers are often blind to their own faults and their spiritual poverty. The Bible speaks of us making our plans and striving to make them happen, but it is God who directs us. Do not misunderstand it is good and even prudent to make plans regarding out future; the planning process should include prayer, seeking God’s will, and even seeking counsel from those we know to be godly and wise. I believe that the process needs to begin by going to the Lord in prayer asking that He reveal the condition of our heart and making sure our motives are good and honorable.

 

God knows our motives, intentions, inner thoughts, and desires; God tests them all. The Bible is clear that God knows our inner being, nothing is hidden from Him. He wants that our motives to be pure in order to honor and glorify Him. For example, when Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem, He knew the motives of the “businessmen” were corrupt and self-centered. His reaction was to overturn tables and drive them from the temple. The temple was to be a house of prayer and not where a profit could be made. Is God against making money? Absolutely not. However, wealth is not to be gained by illegal or immoral ways that take advantage of one’s position or authority given to Him. God knows the motives for doing what we do. That which is done with righteous motives will be blessed and those done for unrighteous reasons will be judged. When and how is determined by Him.

 

Here is the takeaway for these verses today. Each of us needs to examine our own heart to be sure our motives for what we are doing reflect God’s will in our lives. We might think our behavior is good, but the ultimate Judge is God. He examines our heart and the motives for what we do. If we have wrong motives or sin in our heart, confess it to Him and then make right the wrong we have done. The Bible is clear that no one is righteous, and all have sinned which includes doing things with the wrong motives. To me, the solution is to walk the narrow way as best we can in Bible reading/study and in prayer. By doing so, God will reveal the true condition of our hearts so we might be truly clean and able to follow the Holy Spirit as He guides us.