I Thessalonians 2:3
“For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit”.
Motivation is important. Why do we do what we do? Are our motives honorable, greedy, insecure or guilty? If Jesus is our lord, then He will work on those. None of us are perfect. We all have work to be done.
We can do great things for God, but if we don’t do it from love, it’s tainted and we won’t get any heavenly rewards. I Corinthians 13:2 says, “…if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
We all make mistakes and are sinful. We are to go to The Lord and ask for help. David says this in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” At times we know we are sinful. There are other times we are unaware, so we ask The Lord to generally clean our hearts.
We often aren’t unaware of our motives. Proverbs 20:5 says, “A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, But a man of understanding draws it out.” We should pray and ponder about our motives. God will give us insight.
This cleansing process is part of sanctification. It’s how The Lord incrementally makes us more christlike. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.” We are His workmanship, His project or His piece of art.
We are often reluctant to give The Lord access to our lives. We fear He will make us something extreme. We tend to think He wants to make us a religious, strange person. When in reality, He wants to make us what He designed us to be. To know Him is part of that. We won’t be any more content than by following His way. We rarely know that ahead of time.
We often fear His purifying process because we misunderstand Him. Hebrews 11:6 defines faith this way, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” He rewards us. He blesses our lives, He fills us with contentment and joy. As we experience Him, we let Him into our lives.
Lord, thanks for Your work within us. Work within us to have pure hearts.