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Take Stock of Your Motives
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Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
Listen to the radio broadcast of Take Stock of Your Motives
Download audio fileSo, the last time you said or did something that on reflection just wasn’t the right thing to say or do, did you stop to ask yourself why? Mostly, we don’t. We just plough ahead and end up making the same mistake again. You’d think we’d learn, wouldn’t you?
We each have well-worn paths – patterns of behaviour that we repeat time and time again. Let’s say there’s a particular person you don’t like, so when your phone rings and their name pops up on the screen you simply don’t answer the call. Why?
Well, you might argue that you just don’t need the drama in your life today. You don’t need to hear them whinging about this, whining about that, or perhaps nit-picking, criticising you yet again. Okay, fair enough.
But now let me ask you, what’s your motive as you make that decision? Is it to look after yourself, or to care for that difficult person? Is it to preserve your peace, or to speak a much-needed word of encouragement into their lives despite how they make you feel?
It can be an uncomfortable feeling to question our motives, but question them we must. Writing about Jesus, the Apostle Paul says this:
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. (NRSV)
Who, he goes on to point out, went on to die on that cross for the likes of you and me, despite the difficult people we turned out to be. When it comes to how you treat others, always be prepared to question your motives.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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