Your Daily Devotional for February 7, 2006

February 7, 2006

 

Motive Check!

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”

 

James 4:3

 

Often, prayer is looked upon as the repeating of a grocery list to someone with the money to purchase the goods. While our Heavenly Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine, he is concerned about our motives. The people that James was addressing in this book were not receiving their prayer requests. The reason for this is found in the end of verse 3 “…because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Because their motives were wrong, God would give them what they were asking for.

 

The Bible encourages us to examine ourselves and our motives. David pleaded in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The psalmist wanted God to search out anything in his heart and mind that was not a right motive, and to remove it from his life. He wanted God to conduct a motive check.

 

The unexamined life is not worth living, and the unexamined prayer life is not worth praying! We need to make sure that our motives are pure. Sometimes it is so easy to simply ask things because we want them, or because we desire the profit and pleasure that comes from them! There is nothing wrong with profit or pleasure in and of itself, but personal gain is not what we should pray for.

 

The only good reason for answered prayer is for the glory of God on this earth! Jesus Christ prayed in Matthew 6:10, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” We must pray according to the will of our Heavenly Father. 1 John 5:14 gives us this promise, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.” Christ’s whole motive was to do the will of his Father, and to finish His work. It clearly states in John 9:4, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” He realized that anything aside from bringing glory to God is not worth it, no questions asked.

 

God wants you to pray, but He wants to hear it from your heart instead of your lips. The Bible says, “…man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:17b). In every prayer you pray, ask yourself and God, “Am I doing this for selfish reasons, or for my own personal gain? Is this going to lift up Christ? Is He going to be glorified?” Remember, this can apply to anything that you do. At your work, are your motives simply to get a better job, or are you trying to glorify God by your testimony as an ambassador for Christ? What are you doing on an everyday basis that brings glory and honor to Christ and His work? If you can’t think of anything, perhaps it is time to check your motives.

 

Christ’s motives were pure from His birth to the cross. Even when all logic would justify Him calling down ten thousand angels to set Him free, He chose to obey His Father’s will and drink the bitter cup of death so that we could be free. Let us follow in His steps by examining our own motives and asking God the right things for the right reasons.

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