January 26
Oh, how we love to boast. How we love to receive praise for the things we do. How we announce with loud voices the good deeds that we do. But have you ever consider the heart behind all that you do? Have you examined it and if so, is it filled with the pureness of love or selfish of motives? 1 Corinthians 13:3 “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
There are times when we can do everything right and still be wrong in our doings because our hearts are not in the right place. We can give all we have away, help everyone there is to help yet practice selflessness and still be wrong because we lack love. Love is what causes us to selflessly give and do greatly unto others. It is what causes us to do things without the expectation of receiving anything back. It doesn’t matter what we do, neither does it matter the sacrifices we make, if love is out of the equation then we do it in vain. We must evaluate our hearts and make sure nothing we do is out of self-gain or self-honor.
We must daily check our motives because only we can truly check them. Constantly ask yourself, am I doing this out of the love of God or out of selfishness? If your answers lean towards self-motives ask the Lord to clean your heart and give you one like His because it is only a heart like Christ that works selflessly. It is only a heart like Christ that is full of unconditional love and full of joy.
1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
