Wisdomfied part 10-Sincere Motivation

Prepare You Heart: Read Matthew 23:23-28.  What does Jesus say of those who profess one thing and inside another is found.  Pray that in today’s study God will show you if you are allowing any hypocrisy in your life. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my sincerity and what things I do out of habit or self-discipline and which things I practice out of a changed heart.  When I committed myself to grow as a believer, I knew that there were things I must choose to do as God was sanctifying me, making me more like Christ.  The growth of the heart is a process.  Often feelings follow obedience.  Proverbs 16:2 describes a concept that we will study in this installment: All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.  The Lord is the only one who can ever see us clearly.  A verse that has meant a lot to me the past several years is found in Romans 12:3: For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself that he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.  I need to pray to see myself clearly, as I am biased toward myself and often want to ignore the real reasons I do things as it is much easier to live in false piety.  Making myself look good to people is always something I’ve relied on to feel significant. Pride is another one of my areas of temptation, so I’ve been trying to engage in opportunities to admit my weakness to others so it won’t have a hold on my life.  As Romans says, I’ve had to pray for God’s grace, to have the kind of faith to see myself as He sees and choose to think of other’s interests as well as my own (Phil 2:4).  I pray that God opens the eyes of your heart to see yourself as He sees and your motivations.  It will give you quick assessment of your sanctification and ways to pray for a changed heart. 

Look up the following verses in the book of Proverbs and take notes on what you learn:

Motive and the Heart

·         15:11

·         16:2

·         17:3

·         20:11

·         20:27

·         21:2

·         27:19

False Worship

·         15:8, 29

·         21:3, 27

Duplicity

·         6:12-15

·         10:10,11

·         11:3

·         16:30

·         20:14

·         23:6-8

·         26:23-26

In the Prepare Your Heart section of today’s study, I asked you to read some verses from Matthew and pray about your motives.  Is there any area’s that God has revealed to you where you are insincere, put on a show for others, or have a standard you put on others that you withhold from applying to yourself?  Find a verse to combat your hypocrisy with God’s truth.  Tell someone else you trust to hold you accountable and ask them to let you know when they notice that in your life.  It’s hard to let people in, but it’s the best way to speed up God’s work of transforming you into the image of His Son.