#DailyProverbs:21:27: "The Lord hates it when wicked people offer him sacrifices, especially if they do it from evil motives."
A lot of my personal devotions last week were about motive. They came in the form of watching my mouth, why I was nice or not nice. Why I was focusing or not focusing on personal projects, work projects, family, friends. The big underlying theme was motive.
Why tithe? Yes, the bible says to, but it also calls out the fact that God loves a cheerful giver and that if you are giving for show, or giving out of only obligation - it's not honored by God.
Why pray? If you don't actually want to connect to God and you are merely going through a motion - then what are you doing? That's time to look at your motive.
Do you sing and play (for church) so you have an outlet and get to perfomr? Or do you sing and play for the actual worship experience? It's more than a correct note, a recipe of verse-chorus-verse. I believe that we bring God our first fruits in talent and we give him our best performances... but it takes soul searching to ensure that we are singing UNTO the Lord and not using that as a stage for talent.
Why help someone? If you do it because it makes you look good, look like a caring activist, makes you look pious and makes you look like you are getting the credit - what's the point? God wants us to help others, but he wants us to help out of the knowledge that He has helped us and we should love others as He loves us.
I'm having to check my attitude and my privilege and my motives at the door and examine WHY I do what I do. Does my giving, my life, my job honor my faith and glorify God? Do my blogs glorify my struggles and give me the glory, or am I sharing tough experiences so others can see what someone in 2014 goes through while trying to live an Apostolic life? It's a fine line between helping others by being transparent and self-glory of being "busy" and "working through it." What starts out as a scary experience that God told you to do can turn sour when positive response and acclaim cause the person to become self-important or arrogant. My prayer is that God keeps my brain AND heart in check. You pray that for me, too
Happy Monday, Y'all.
Peace and love in Christ,
#JustBeingMichael ツ
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