What’s my motivation?

There was an old Sprite commercial where one of the actors asks “what’s my motivation”? And it does seem an appropriate question for us to consider. As pastors we need to inspect our motives and also examine our purposes.

As pastors we need to ask the Lord to show us our heart and reveal to us what our motive is. Are we doing what we are doing for attention? For earthly accolades? For a personal sense of fulfillment? Are we doing the ministry because we don’t think we have any other marketable skills or because if we quit there will be no one else to do it? Why are we in the ministry?

Hopefully, above all, you are in ministry because God called you. Hopefully we serve because we have a passionate love for God and people. I pray that your and my motivation for ministry is a desire to honor and glorify God while also joining Him in bringing people to salvation, healing and wholeness.

But along with examining the motivation of our heart, we should also look deeply at our purpose and intended outcome of ministry. Are we doing it to build a big church? Are we doing it to entertain people? Are we doing ministry to put a smile on people’s faces and make them feel good about themselves?

I hope that our motive is purely for God’s glory and the eternal good of those we minister to and I hope that our end goal is to help people to know God, spend time with God and to become like God.

Even when things aren’t going perfectly or we aren’t reaching new people like we hoped or had the breakthroughs we were praying for and dreaming about, if our motivation and purpose are both holy we know God can surely use us and will be at work, even in our feeble attempts. God does desire fruitfulness, but this I know: when we faithfully stay connected to Him (the vine) then He will source, supply and provide the fruit.

So please, ask the Lord to examine your heart and show you your motive(s) and your purpose(s) and then take the next step in faith, trusting the Lord to sanctify your heart, redeem your mistakes and bless your efforts once your heart is right with Him.