What are your motives?

James 4:1-3 (NLT) says "What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. ³ And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure."

Today I wanted to talk about our motives when we go to God.
These verses and this whole chapter are very powerful. But if we could just focus on this small portion concerning our motives and our thoughts before God I feel like it could benefit us in a great way.

When I was growing up there was always a joke around my house when it came to asking our Dad for something. Usually that something was a toy or some "fun" item or perhaps a request to go somewhere special. We would joke about "Buttering Up" our dad before asking him, literally telling him how much we love him, hugging on him, doing small things for him that were out of the ordinary. The funny thing about it was when we started acting this way (because it was unordinary) he immediately knew what we were up to and he knew that we were going to be requesting or asking something of him.
Most of the time when this happened it became harder to get the thing we wanted because he knew we were only doing these things in order for us to get something in return.

This morning as I think about that small funny story about my childhood I wonder how many times we do that with God. Going the extra mile for a neighbor in need, being compassionate to people we usually talk bad about or even pretending to be "super spiritual" and closer to God then anyone else. How many times do we start acting this way only because we want something from God. How many times are we guilty of buttering up God before we ask him for something, and how selfish are we to only worship God with passion and excitement only for a blessing in return.

All of this leads me to this question. What are your motives when you go before the Lord? Is this relationship between you and our Father God a one sided relationship? Are you only in this for yourself? For looks? For personal gain? For personal understanding?

I hope not...

One of the biggest steps I took in my Christian walk was when I realized that I should bless God and worship him for who he is, not what he can do for me. I respect him for being the Judge, I respect him for being the Creator, I respect him for who he is not what he is capable of doing for me. And when I started worshipping and praying to him for him and not for myself EVERYTHING changed! God started blessing me in ways I still to this day cannot explain to you.

So, to conclude this blog post, I ask you why are you in a relationship with Jesus Christ? Why do you pray to the Lord? Is it for a selfish ambition? Or is it because you truly want to have a relationship with him.

Change the way you pray, and you will see changes in your life.

Pastor Phil