Back to the Heart

These last few months, I've been particularly convicted about my motives for doing things.

I mean, it's one thing to do the right thing. Sometimes it almost seems like a lot of disciples of Jesus almost "have that down." Not that most strong Christians I know appear to be perfect, but sometimes it can seem pretty close.

To take it a step further, it seems as if lots of us "good-little-church Christians" who have been raised in homes with the gospel know all the right things to do. We've read the entire Bible. We've memorized Bible verses. We've been involved in the church, Bible studies, mission trips, teaching Sunday School/AWANA/VBS, and tons of other things. We know we're supposed to be holy, because God is holy. We're not supposed to be involved in things that most teenagers are. I mean, God called us Christians to be different! C'mon. We already know that.

But we've become Christians in a little box. We've become immune to the amazing, life-changing power of Christ. It's as if we think that because we've studied the Bible and we're trying to live like Jesus, that's enough.

However, I recently took a trip to Washington (AMAZING!) and I had a blast. A few days after getting there, I spent the night with these incredible girls:



(Me, Hannah, Grace, Sophia)

Now, I can honestly say that these three girls are a few of the most exceptional Christian young ladies I know. (Of course, I do know lots of others!) But these girls are such godly encouragements to me.


And before we went to bed that night, we started talking about some struggles in our Christian walk. One thing that particularly stuck out to me was the aspect of motives.

Sure, you can do all the right things (to an extent). But it's completely different to them simply because you see Christ's love. We say that Jesus is all we want, but don't we sometimes contradict that in the way that we live our lives? I know I do. I say I only want to please Christ, yet I find myself longing for things such as praise, admiration, and even flattery. My heart isn't always right, because I'm longing for the praise to go to myself rather than the ultimate purpose of my life: to glorify God and serve Him only.


The Lord speaks against those who claim to love Him but whose love goes no deeper than lip service in Isaiah 29:13, "The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'" (NIV)


Here's a specific example. In His book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Joshua Harris wrote about how he and his wife saved their first kiss for marriage. I don't have the book, but he said something to the extent of 'Saving kissing for marriage is another act that, if done without the intention of glorifying God, is completely useless.' It all depends on your motive. Many things, if not done only to glorify God, can become sources of spiritual pride. I mean, I often say "Well, all the glory goes to God," but in my heart I'm congratulating myself for giving God the glory, or, even worse, hoping that some of the glory still goes to me.


Dr. John Piper said,

"There is no doubt that man could perform more evil acts toward his fellow man than he does. But if he is restrained from performing more evil acts by motives that are not owing to his glad submission to God, then even this 'virtue' is evil in the sight of God."

I can try to live like Christ, but the real question is do I let Christ rule my life... and my heart?

Lord, please forgive me for all those times I say it's all about Jesus, but I live as if it's all about me...