MOTIVES THAT MOVE GOD'S HEART!!

It is both a comfort and a bewildering thought that God who is righteous tests our hearts and minds. There is nothing that is hidden from His eyes because He is the omniscient God who is the embodiment of all wisdom and knowledge. He knows our motives, priorities, likes and dislikes when we go to Him in prayer and when we plan and scheme our lives. He deals with us according to our motives. If our motives are not right with Him, He will not answer our prayers. If we ask with wrong motives, even when our audible prayers might sound very theological and spiritual, we will find our prayers unanswered. If we pray innocently and without thinking about the consequences of our requests to God, in His compassion He will prevent us from reaping the consequences of our requests. When Abraham prayed that Ishmael was sufficient, God didn’t answer His prayer because God knew that Abraham prayed with good motives in the context of human incapacity, but with weak faith which was willing to be satisfied with less than the best. But God granted His will in Abraham’s life and gave Him His best. When Elijah prayed that he might die, God knew the frustrations in his heart and the weak mind with which he prayed amiss and so God didn’t grant his request. God had greater plans for Elijah and there were unfinished tasks for him to complete. God didn’t answer some prayers of God’s people like Moses, Paul and even the disciples because sometimes they asked amiss. When we pray with wrong motives, He will not grant our requests because these wrong motives are against the will of God.

Dear friend, when you pray, are you aware of your motives? Do you realize how your prayer would glorify the Lord? If the answer to any of your prayers would put down the name of the Lord, He will not answer your prayers. If you ask any thing in selfishness, He will not grant your requests. If you ask with the motive of lifting you up at the expense of another child of God, you can be sure that your prayer will not be answered. If someone has sinned, you need to pray that they come to repentance so that punishment of God is averted from them. We are even asked to pray positively for our enemies so that they will realize their fault and settle matters with God, as in the case of Job’s friends. When James and John wanted to sit at both sides of Jesus in the Kingdom, their prayer was selfish and it puts down other brothers in the group and so it never got answered. Several times Moses wanted to die because of the pressure of ministry, but God didn’t answer the prayers and instead gave him strength to continue with the ministry. Even with the best of motives when Paul asked for healing, God didn’t answer because not healing Paul would cause the grace of God to be poured on to Paul to cause it to praise God and to help millions of His children to take comfort in the experience of Paul to live without healing. So when we go to the Lord in prayer, whether it is for us or for others or even for the ministry, let us examine our motives and crucify our wrong motives so that God can answer our prayers according to His righteousness. He is the best judge of minds and hearts along with all motives and so let us leave our hearts with the Lord to examine and judge. Let us also ask Him to transform our hearts and minds through His Spirit so that our motives will be pleasing to Him as we go to His presence with our needs, desires, aspirations, likes and dislikes.

Psalms 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Thought for Today
The motives processed in the crucible of God’s love and grace will only find favour in His sight.