Why do you do what you do?

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven." Matthew 6:1
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As I read these words from the lips of Jesus I find it is far too easy to simply apply them to the Pharisees of Jesus' day and to shake my head at the "dead religiosity" of the religious leaders of that time. Doing things for "show" and not genuinely from the heart was certainly a problem of the religious leaders of Jesus' day, but what about my life?

In doing my study on this verse I came across a powerful description of hypocrisy, which defines it as simply "doing right things for wrong reasons." I spent some time this morning looking back at my life of more than three decades in ministry. It was an interesting walk down memory lane of twenty-four years of pastoral ministry in two incredible congregations and six years of leadership in one of the most dynamic mission agencies in the world.

What I saw was a track record of working hard to do the right things, which is a very high value for me. (After all "responsibility" is one of my top five strengths on the StrenghsFinder.) However, when the Spirit of God shined His "motive search light" deep into my heart I found too many times when I did the right thing, but for the wrong motive. These wrong motives were often more about me and how people looked at me than they were about genuinely serving and loving people with the selfless love of Jesus. That means according to our definition I can rightly be classified as a hypocrite. Ouch! It really hurts to admit admit that! Yet, unless I admit it, confess it and ask the Lord to fill my heart with the right motives I will find myself continuing to do the right things for the wrong reasons.

Why not take time today and ask the Spirit of God to shine His "motive search light" into your heart? You may find He wants to deal with some important things in your heart like He did in mine.