Managing Life

What's your motive?

Catherine Ann Francis, Penang

What are the marks of an authentic Christian? Is he someone who spends a lot of time in church, has a vast knowledge about God, carries a Bible, listens to Christian music, attends church functions regularly, displays pictures of Jesus and the crucifix around the house and serves in the parish? While all of this is good, it still does not help us to identify what makes a Christian, a Christian. For me, a true Christian is someone who has made God the centre of his life and whose heart has been given over to God. I must admit that it is good to have and do all the above things and more, but if our hearts are not in the right place, then everything is of no value. It is useless to go to church, perform all the duties expected of a Christian, appear to be a good person, etc. if your motives are not right. When God looks at us He sees into our heart, our motives, to see if they are self-centred or centred on Him. It is good to ask yourself whether you are doing all those things for God or for yourself.

It is so easy for us to be impressed by someone's outward behaviour but we must be wary as not everyone who sounds religious or acts like a Christian is really godly if he / she does not have a personal relationship with Jesus. The decisive factor is whether he / she has faith in Him and obeys Him in all things. Jesus Himself says in Mt. 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil-doers!”

If our hearts are truly centred on Him then we will heed His words and put them into practice. It is revealed in the scriptures that even evil spirits know who God is, but they do not listen to Him and turn from their evil ways. (Mk. 3:11 Whenever the evil spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”) It is not enough for us to know about God. We need to listen to Him, not just know about Him.

Jesus strongly rebuked the Pharisees and teachers of the law for their hypocrisy by referring to Isaiah's prophecy about them in Is. 29:13 “These people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” There is a vast difference between knowing and believing. Just knowing about God, knowing His word, memorising scripture etc. is not enough. It is what you believe in your heart and put into action that matters. We may know the Bible from front to back and may be able to quote scripture passages but if we don't truly believe and understand who God is, the salvation that He offers, and have faith in Him and obey His word, we know nothing.

Proper motivation matters to God and when we do things with the wrong motives, it could well be idolatry since what we are actually worshipping is self, religious performance or the approval of others. Some people may go through all the right religious motions but there is no joy or life present in their service. Others do all the right things just to impress others or to make themselves look good. However God wants us to be controlled by His love and motivated by His glory and name. He wants a heart that has repented from the sin of chasing our own glory and performing dead works.

We are called to act from the heart and with good will. In other words, our motives must be pure. This is only possible if Christ is ruling our hearts. It is one thing to render service faithfully, and it is another thing altogether to serve joyfully without complaining, seeking God's glory all the while. This should be our goal and it is something against which we must regularly evaluate ourselves. The things we do outwardly should reflect what we believe and think inside. This is what it means to serve God from the heart. We must strive to reach the stage where we desire to do what God says and not what the world says. Just doing the right things because we have to or because we are supposed to without a willing, humble and contrite heart is not sufficient. God sees through our self-righteous motives and unwilling hearts. He seeks those who willingly, eagerly and readily seek His glory in all that they do and say.

May God make us willing servants, not servants who say we will obey and then don't. Perhaps we have said we would pray for someone and then we didn't. Maybe we have made a commitment to read our Bible regularly and then we don't. Perhaps we have been prompted by the Holy Spirit to share our faith with someone, and then we failed to do so. Disobedience and a stubborn heart is the worst place to be. However, neither should we be people who do the right religious things for the wrong motives. We may share our faith, read our Bibles and pray for others, but we do it without love for others or for the Lord. We may be doing all those things with a cold and unwilling heart, or with a heart that is absorbed with self-glorification. Only a heart ruled by Christ and fully surrendered to His will can truly delight in the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly.

When we serve others long enough, it will be so easy for us to feel used and unappreciated. We do all the work but someone else gets the credit and we end up either embarrassed or frustrated. You work faithfully and diligently, yet the glory goes to another. Your efforts make someone else successful or popular. At such times you should keep a close eye on your pride which loves to get the credit, to be mentioned, to receive glory, to have people fall all over you. Very often, the victim of pride is hardly conscious of the presence of this sin. There are, however, three tests by means of which we can discover whether or not we have succumbed to pride:

The test of precedence. How do we react when someone else is chosen for the job we expected or for the position we coveted? When someone else is promoted and we are overlooked? When someone else outshines us in gifts and accomplishments?

The test of sincerity. During our moments of self-evaluation we will say many things about ourselves and really mean them. But how do we feel when others, especially our rivals, say exactly the same things about us?

The test of criticism. Does criticism arouse hostility and resentment in our hearts and cause us to immediately try to justify ourselves? Do we hasten to criticize the critic?

When you are assailed by pride remember your role as a Christian – to serve and to give. A true servant of God does not keep a record of who did what, and he does not look to others for approval.

There are times when our responsibility may put us in a most unpopular dilemma. As God's servant we may be called upon to confront or in some way tell another the truth that the individual does not want to hear. This information may be painful to accept, but it is what God wants to be said in order to help the hearer to come to his senses. If our motives are pure then we will be able to speak the truth as graciously and as accurately as possible and risk being rejected by the other person. However, if we crave popularity and acclaim and want to remain in the good books of the other person, then we will suppress God's message or sugar-coat it. The most subtle peril every servant must endure is the secret, burning desire to be rewarded, applauded and exalted. We must never forget that we are accountable to God for the spiritual growth of those placed under our responsibility. Accountability is essential in order for any servant to remain pure and pliable clay in the Master's hand.

If you are the type of person who needs a lot of praise from people, who has to be appreciated before you can continue in a particular ministry, then you had better forget about serving the Lord because more often than not you will be overlooked, unappreciated and virtually unknown. Your reward will not come from without, but from within and not from people, but from the satisfaction God gives you down inside. All of us who are involved in some form of ministry need to cultivate this mentality. If, after leading a worship session or giving a teaching, we live only for a few moments of praise and flattery from the people, then we are certainly in the wrong business. True servants of the Lord readily accept the truth of this familiar piece:

So send I you to labour unrewarded.

To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,

To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing,

So send I you to toil for Me alone.

So send I you to leave your life's ambition,

To die to dear desire, self-will resign,

To labour long and love where men revile you,

So send I you to lose your life in Mine.

Before jumping headlong into something, always search and ask yourself probing and penetrating questions such as:

Why am I planning this?

What is my reason for doing that?

Why did I say yes (or no)?

Why am I excited over this opportunity?

What caused me to bring up that subject?

Why did I mention his / her name?

What's my motive?

Catherine Francis is a member of the Light of God, a branch of Covenanted Community for Christ, Malaysia .