“So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.”
1 Thessalonians 2:3-4, NLT
“I invited five ladies to our Bible group, this month. I got them all saved, had them join the church, and even got them to sign-up for donations to our new Reach-a-Sister-Fund! I’m pretty sure I’ll be moved up to group leader and featured in the church bulletin soon! Go God!”
“We need to pray about all those sad, poor people I visited on our recent missions trip! Honestly, having to live like that! They are so blessed that we could come to them! How else would they know the love of Christ, without us? We’re all they have to hold onto, you know! Bless their little hearts! God is good!”
“Ladies, we want to thank our sister for inviting three new ladies to our Bible study group, and encourage them each to keep coming back! Let’s all give God the praise and our sister a round of applause!”
Which scenario reminds you of godly women carrying the Good News to others with pure motives? I hope it wasn’t the first two!
Sometimes, the people we attempt to reach with the Gospel message suspect our motives. They’ve literally and figuratively shut doors in my face and the faces of countless number of Christians, believing our motives to be those of Sister Self-Promoting and Sister Self-Righteous, above!
The truth is we really can have hidden motives when we reach out to others in sharing the message of Jesus Christ. When we place importance upon anything (how many; people we’ve impressed with our “sainthood”, people “we’ve gotten saved”, people we’ve invited to church, or financial pledges we’ve secured) above our genuine compassion and love for unsaved people, we are operating out of hidden motives.
Each time we profess to have saved someone, we misrepresent the power of God, whose message we claim to spread! We don’t have the power to save anybody; only God does.
“For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.” (John 6:44)
Before we connect with others, let’s examine our motives, and ask God, the Holy Spirit, who guides us, to empower us to make the necessary corrections that will keep our motives godly.
To effectively reach others with the Good News, we must share it from godly, loving, open motives, rather than from loveless, hidden ones. This pleases God.
By grace through faith,
Rita