God wants us to have pure motives

"Every way of man is right in his own eyes but the Lord weighs and tries the heart."

- Proverbs 21:2 (AMP)

I grew up with parents who loved to watch mystery movies. Every Sunday, Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes or Perry Mason visited our TV screen. Clue was a popular board game in that day and age.

The main theme of all these mysteries was who done the crime and why. We all watched, guessed and wondered as clues revealed possible motives hidden behind each suspect's story.

Motives are the thoughts behind the action. They are present in everything we do. We see people's actions on the outside, but we don't know what motivates them on the inside.

Only God can search our heart and mind. He knows every thought and intent of our hearts. As far as God is concerned, our inner life reveals the real person that we are.

Have you ever thought about what your life is like on the inside? Why do you do what you do? What are you thinking?

Motives show up in our everyday actions. It's good for us to examine them. For instance, have you ever thought about the presents you give? Some are given with a pure motive to bless someone. But other motives for giving can include the desire to impress someone or manipulate them to do us a favor or gain a promotion.

Self-pity can be a motive to get someone's attention or control a relationship. Having others feel sorry for us makes us think we are drawing on their affections. In reality, we need to base our relationships on mutual love, kindness and respect for each other. Without respect for each other the relationship will eventually crumble and fall.

Then there are motives regarding our relationship to God. Do we go to church to get God to do something for us or love us? He already loves us more than we can imagine. We need to go to deepen our relationship with him and our understanding of him as our loving Creator.

Purity of heart takes work. But when we take the challenge to examine our motives and purge our unclean actions, we will reap the blessing of serving God from a blameless heart.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, speaker, life coach and nurse. Contact her to speak at your group or event or to be your life coach, Annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413.