What is your motive?

Tuesday,  January 10th.
What is your motive?

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”
Matthew 6:5

From our opening scripture it is obvious that your motive in prayer is what decides your results from prayer. For instance, if you are praying loud so that others can hear how well you pray, you have your reward because they have heard you pray. Also, if you are singing in worship to God so that others can hear how well you can sing, you have your reward because they have heard you singing.

Therefore, your reward for praying is determined by your motive in prayer. In other words, if you are praying so that you will get noticed when you pray Jesus said you have your reward for that prayer because you have been noticed. So if there is anything you are doing in Church or for the Lord just so you can be noticed, the moment you are noticed you get your reward. So it matters why you do what you do.

Someone may decide to go on a fast by himself and  then go about telling everyone that he is fasting for seven days so that others may think he is very spiritual. If you have that attitude, Jesus said you have your reward because I know that you are fasting for seven days. At the end of the fast, you would not get any blessing out of it because everyone knows you have fasted for seven days because you wanted them to know so that you can be highly esteemed before them. So what reward will you get from God after such a fast? None.

Therefore, it is important you understand that your motive in prayer matters. It is what will determine your rewards or your results in prayer.

Prayer.
Dear Father, I present myself, my service, my abilities, my dreams, my deeds, and my entire life to you as a living sacrifice. Let it all be acceptable unto you, being sanctified of your Spirit, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

For further study, read:
Matthew 6:1-8, Isaiah 58:3-12, James 4:1-3.

Doing the Word.
If you have been doing things for the wrong motives, repent and start doing what you do for the right motives.
Also, as part of prayer during your fast, read and pray with Ephesians 1:17 and Isaiah 11:2, Ephesians 3:16, Philippians 1:19 for our Man of God.