Your MOTIVE has a LOT to do With It

In all of our works for the Lord, the ONLY acceptable ones are those that are done for the glory of God. Paul says, “Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1Cor 10:31).

For as long as you’re doing things for your own glory, it will all come to naught. “Naught”  means zero, nothing. That is one major condition in God’s service–that we be totally surrendered to His will and do everything to His glory.

One of the greatest problems in the body of Christ is personal ambition. People want to “go places” and “be recognized” and they are doing things with wrong motives. And Jesus said that all of these works will be burnt up.

‘Seeking self’ and ‘seeking the Kingdom’ are incompatible.  If SELF is in the forefront, the KINGDOM will be secondary or worse. “No man can serve two masters”. John the Baptist declared regarding Jesus, “He must increase but I must decrease.”  Paul told the Roman believers that a follower of Christ SHOULD NOT think more highly of himself than is proper.

Humility is a quality that, as soon as you think you have it, you have lost it.  Self-effacement is the work of grace in our hearts and the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is not something that we can consciously achieve through will-power, it is a work of grace. It is a condition of the heart.

It is a genuineness of spirit where God is truly HEAD OF ALL THINGS in our lives.  It is a condition of death to personal ambition, jealousy, envy, greed and ego.  It is Christ in us!  “It is in Him we live and move and have our being.”  It is, “The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal 2:20). It is an outward demonstration of the inward condition; not something that is manufactured.

The only acceptable motive in our works for Him should be the glory of God. It is the un-renewed mind that keeps thinking, “What’s in it for me.”  The renewed mind is in it ONLY to glorify God.

That is one of the main reasons why so many marriages fall apart today and why people are so unhappy. Because people go into it thinking: “What will I get out of it? What’s in it for me? What can I keep from my old life.”

Jesus always glorified His Father in heaven. There was never a moment when He did not glorify God. Our Lord’s every thought, word, and action was totally devoted to the glory of God. He said, “I don’t do anything in My own, and I don’t receive glory for Myself.” Even when raising Lazarus, He said that his sickness was not unto death, but that He may glorify God.

Glorifying God in everything means we honor Him in our thoughts and actions. Our thoughts are to be set on the things of God (Psalm 1) and the Word of God (Psalm 119:11). When we focus on God’s Word, we know what is right and can follow through with doing what is right.

To glorify God in everything, one must exercise faith (Hebrews 11:6), love without hypocrisy (Romans 12:9), deny oneself (Luke 9:23), be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and offer oneself as “living sacrifices” to God (Romans 12:1). .

Remember what God hates the most: a lofty heart, a lifted up heart (Isa 2:12). You can’t expect God’s blessings if you don’t walk humbly. If everything revolves around you, you are doomed. Pride and self-adulation have no place in God’s Kingdom. Remember what was the number one sin of Lucifer. He wanted the glory for himself. And so many in the body of Christ are tempted with the same sin.

If your motive is always to glorify God, living holy becomes easy. Living holy simply means to live humbly, in subjection, in obedience, and in reverence to God and His commands. It makes it easy to obey God’s Word when you live surrendered and yielded. You then WANT to glorify Him.

Jesus was only reflecting God. He said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him” (John 13:31). He reflected God’s greatness. He gave evidence of the supreme greatness of all God’s attributes.

Meeting God in prayer and in His Word daily, points us to His goodness and grace, and it changes our hearts and matures us in wisdom. Our lives become rooted in His truth, and we reflect Him. All glory to Him.

David wrote, “Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with Yours. All the nations You have made will come and worship before You, Lord; they will bring glory to Your name. For You are great and do marvelous deeds; You alone are God” (Ps 86:8-10).

Our motives are really the catalyst that will determine the fruits of our works for God; whether they be good or bad. If your motives are for people to look at you, or see YOU in any way, then you no longer have pure motives in glorifying God.

This is a pretty strict condition in God’s service. Paul said, “each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” (1Cor 3:13). And Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity“ (Mt 7:22,23).  Remember in the Book of Acts, when Simon the magician wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit, basically to glorify himself in the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit?  (Acts 8:9-25)

We carry a lot of power and authority as Christians. God said that “He gives us power to create wealth” (Deut 8:18), and He expects us to “move mountains” (Mk 11:23). He wants us to bring the “Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10), and “greater works than these shall you do” (Jn 14:22).—But it is all to bring glory to Him.

Paul says, “Nothing that I have done is worth mentioning except the ministry of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:18, 19).

When Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others,” that wasn’t the whole sentence. He went on to give the reason why it’s important to shine: “So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mat 5:16).

There are three main components necessary for a servant of the Lord to bear the right kind of fruit in the body of Christ.

1. Our motives have to be strictly for the glory of God.
2. We have to obey God’s Word and not mix in our own intention and our own works.
3. We have to do things in the power of the Holy Spirit not in the flesh.

Let’s shine for Jesus to bring glory to God. Hallelujah