Our motives are the secret and hidden springs that flow out of our hearts.

Our motives are also those hidden things in our hearts that move us to speak and to act.

Our lives “bubble out” from our hearts, like many streams bubble out of deep and hidden springs.

This is why we are so often told in the Word of God to “keep our hearts with all diligence.”

And that is why our LORD’s teaching is so full of all of the “matters of the heart”. Especially the hidden motives of the heart!

We’re not alone in our secrets. God knows all. It’s just a matter of time before we turn to him in those dark rooms and ask for him to enter. That’s when lives change.

As D.L. Moody used to say, “We have to be emptied before we can be filled.”

As we yield and humbly admit our bad motives, blame-shifting, excuses, and sinful decisions to the LORD, we can then ask Him to remove them and their chilling effects from our heart and soul. That emptying out is crucial, in order to make room for God’s living water to fill us.

We Christians still have a sinful nature, but we are no longer chained to those self focused desires.

We are now free again to pursue things which please and honor God. In the midst of our Christian freedom, we must be on guard every single day against indulging the desires of the flesh.

The moment we begin to do this again with our words, or actions, or even persistent deceitful thoughts, we begin to notice a subtle shift in some of our motives.

• Be careful of your motives.
• Be simple in your hearts.
• Be sincere in your hearts.
• Be pure in your hearts.
• Be honest with yourself about what’s in your heart.
• Don’t be not men-pleasers.
• Don’t seek to be seen of men.
• Do nothing for the praise, or for the approval, or for the rewards of men.

God is looking at that place inside you where your mind is constantly weighing its various options.

This means He is looking at more than just your behavior.

He is looking at why you do what you do. That goes deep, to the level of the heart.

Seek secret places near the heart of God. Open-heartedly, fully allowing Him to prune away the deadness of those things that rob you of intimacy and vulnerability in dialog.

Seek hiddenness in Christ.

Seek and practice silence.

Live all of your life in the presence of God. Lay your heart wide open to His eye alone.

Seek to have the praise of God. Work for His approval and for His reward, who sees everything in secret!

In the end, our Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. And, He sees those issues within us that no one else comes close to seeing.

Yet He still loves us even with all of our conflicted desires and imperfect follow-through.

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness,” Matthew 6:22-23.

 

In His Shadow,
~ Mary Lindow ^©

Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed as long as complete message and website information for Mary Lindow is included. Thank You!

” THE MESSENGER ” ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
Global Prayer Rooms

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Mary Lindow has a passion for encouraging others – all generations, careers or vocations to live expressing excellence through personal integrity, healthy accountability, and wise management of talents and skills. She’s a sought after keynote, inspirational, humorous speaker and teacher across the USA and internationally in Ministers & Spiritual leaders Conferences, and training seminars for various organizations.

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