Proverbs 21:27  “God loathes the sacrifice of an evil person, especially when it is brought with ulterior motives.”  NLT

Why do I give, serve, live for God?  What is my motivation?  When I sacrifice my time, talent, and treasure, is it for God’s glory or for my own?  Is my heart desiring to respond in love to the love God has shown to me or is my heart’s desire to impress people and pretend that I am something I am not?  Do I want to please man or is my heighest motivaton to please my Maker because I really truly want to live for Him and show Him my love?

Verse 27 makes me consider some pretty important questions about who I am and why I do what I do.  Essentially to me this verse is saying…  it doesn’t matter what I do, how I serve, how much I give, if my heart is not in it or my motives are mixed up.  The language is really strong “God loathes” an evil person’s sacrifice and when that sacrifice is offered with the wrong intent or skewed motivation, He “especially” loathes the sacrifice.  Why?  Because it is given for all the wrong reasons, without a heart of love for the Lord, but with the thought that… ‘maybe I’ll get something out of this’ or ‘people will really be impressed with me’ or ‘God will love me more because of what I have done.’  Or maybe there is some other reason, but if a sacrifice is given for the purpose of personal gain and benefit, rather than with a heart of praise, worship, thanksgiving, honor, and gratitude, that is loathed by the Lord.

So it reminds me to get my heart right.  It gives me perspective to really consider and evaluate my motives.  It challenges me to not have ulterior motives, but to be simply motivated by my love relationship with Jesus.  He loves me, I need to respond back to Him with an honest affection and response of love.  That should be my one and only motivation in all I do.

Lord Jesus thank you for loving me.  Forgive me when my motives are misplaced and messed up.  Help please, Lord, to experience your grace and love everyday and please give me the ability to live my life for you in a way that is rightly motivated and is measured only by your love for me and my desire to love you back…  honestly, authentically, and in the truest way possible.

In Jesus’ Name…    Amen

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 7:48 am and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.