Motives

Why do you do what you do? If you go to visit a friend in the hospital or sign the book at a funeral visitation or prepare a meal for someone, do you stop long enough to ask yourself why you are doing it?

In preparing for this Sunday’s lesson in our high school class, I came across this quote – “People are always motivated by at least two reasons: the one they tell you about and a secret one.” (O.A. Battista)

I’ve had to think through that a few times. Granted, there are times that we do something for other people out of the kindness of our hearts. They have a need that we are able to meet and we are moved to meet whatever that need is.

But I think there are also times where we might do something without the purest of motives. We may offer to meet that need knowing that we are supposed to do that or it presents a good image of who we are. We want people to think we are generous or selfless or compassionate so we do something for others that helps create that image.

In Matthew 6, Jesus talks about our motives when we give or when we pray or when we fast. Those are all good things, but Jesus warns against doing them to be seen by men.

I think the hardest work God has to do is in the human heart. I know I sometimes do what I know I should, even when my motives aren’t the purest. God not only needs to work on our behavior, but especially on the motives behind the behavior. I think that’s why God is so concerned with the heart. He keeps coming back to our motives. Some days it feels like we have a long way to go.

What Everyone Needs

Over the weekend I was listening to a podcast from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. They recently hosted a guest speaker from Kenya and the podcast included both an interview with him along with his sermon from that Sunday.

In his message he shared three things that everyone needs.  One of the focuses he has in his church in Kenya is calling the men of his church and country to be better fathers.  Many of the problems they face are due to the lack of involvement of fathers in the lives of their children (sound familiar?).

The three things he focused on were these:

Acceptance – Affection – Affirmation

He made the point that each person needs to be accepted for who he/she is, each person needs affection expressed through words and actions that communicate love and each person needs affirmation through being celebrated.  God has placed that in each person’s heart.

What happens so many times is that people don’t have those needs met.  Either through absent parents or disconnected fathers, children don’t receive the acceptance, affection and affirmation they need.  There is a void in a person’s life when those things are given.  And those unmet needs can impact how a person looks at God.

The good news is that we have a heavenly Father who is able to meet those needs in our lives.  Whether he had awesome parents or absent parents, God wants to love us as a Father.

The speaker also shared these keen insights about our Father’s love.  When we look at our Father, we see that . . .

• Love has feet – God pursues His children, He runs after us
• Mercy has arms – Even though we sin, He still loves us
• Grace has a face – We see the joy in our Father when we return to Him

His message was a great reminder that we all have the same basic needs. Whether from the United States, Kenya or anywhere else, God has wired us to need and search for those three things.  And all of those things can be found in Him – a Father who gives acceptance, affection and affirmation to His children.