What’s Your Motive?

Matthew 5:8 Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous–possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!

It is possible to do all the right things, yet with a wrong heart and wrong motivation. We see here that the pure in heart will be the ones to see God. To be pure means not mixed with anything else, free from contamination and impurities. God wants our hearts to be pure, for us to serve Him with no motive except that we love Him. I put this in perspective by thinking of my little boy. He is such a sweetheart and when he hugs and kisses me and tells me he loves me it melts my heart. The other day, however, he wanted something from me- I think it was a gum or candy. He hugged me, kissed me and told me he loved me but it didn’t have the same effect, because I knew he was just trying to butter me up. Don’t get me wrong- he was still cute, but knowing his motivation was to get some candy lessened the impact of his affection. Why do we do the things we do for the kingdom of God? Are our hearts pure or do we have ulterior motives? Psalm 24:3-4  says 3Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place? 4He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully.

I don’t know about you, but I know I want to see God, to be able to stand in His presence spotless, blameless, and knowing that I did everything I could to walk according to His Word. Everything we do should be out of sheer, absolute love for our heavenly father. If our motivation is our genuine love for Him and our complete desire to please Him, our hearts will be pure and we will be in position to see Him in a greater capacity than ever before. Today I have a challenge for you- take a minute and check yourself. Why do you do the things you do? Are your motives right? Is your heart pure? If not that’s okay, you have the opportunity to make a few minor adjustments. Once your heart is clean and pure then you will be able to get into His presence in a more powerful way.