When we serve the Lord, there should be a willingness to serve. God has graciously provided so much to us; we should be more than willing to serve Him.
However, in our service to the Lord, we may not always have the right motive.
In the parable in Matthew 20:1-16,
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.”
“At nine o’clock in the morning, he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock, he did the same thing.”
“At five o’clock that afternoon, he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’
“They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’
“The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’
“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’
“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.” (NLT)
The workers hired first in this parable, got upset because the workers who were hired last got the same wage. The first workers thought they deserved more even though they agreed to what they got.
In our work for the Lord, do we have the right motives?
What is really in your heart?
Sometimes we do things because we want the praise of the people around us. Human recognition provides immediate gratification that is nice for the moment but does not last.
Jesus warned about this when He taught about giving.
“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”(Matthew 6:1-3; NLT)
How about your relationship with the Lord. Do you sometimes merely use God to get what you want? Have the things of this world made you selfish and greedy?
James had this to say to the Jewish Christians in James 4:1-3,
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 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. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” (NLT)
The Bible reminds us that the Lord always really knows that is in our hearts.
“People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives.” (Proverbs 16:2; NLT)
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve” (Jeremiah 17:9-10; NLT)
“The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit exposing every hidden motive.” (Proverbs 20:27; NLT)
Well, we know that we cannot hide anything from the Lord. He knows all and will bring it to light in time.
Even when we have to purest of motives this should be our prayer,
“Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart.”
(Psalms 26:1-2; NLT)
When we serve the Lord, our prayer should be to have the right motives. Our single purpose is to bring honor and glory to God. We do not want to take anything away from His glory by having a selfish motive.
“Lord, help us to have pure motives that will bring glory to you and only you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
