1 Corinthians 4:5 "So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition from God." Romans 14:10b-12 “…For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”
If you truly want to know what makes you tick, study your motives. I suggest that why you do what you do says far more about you than what you are actually doing. That would help explain why it is that upon his return Jesus is going to reveal the motives of every heart. It will tell who we are and who our neighbor is and be the bases upon which we give an account of ourselves to God.
So when the Lord returns, do you want to be surprised by the motives that his light reveals? or would you rather have very few motives exposed that in any way surprise you? How do we minimize disheartening surprises when it’s our turn to give an account to God for the life we’ve lived? The answer may be to be proactive on just what you want motivating your life. How? Choose your life’s motives in the light of choosing your life’s purpose.
Perhaps we could put it this way: what a port of destination is to a ship, your life’s purpose is to your life. That is to say, your life’s purpose is where you want to end up when the journey is done. Your motives are like the ship’s rudder. If the movements of that rudder do not correspond to keeping the ship on course to the desired destination, the ship will end up somewhere else. So for the success of the journey, two things have to be clear: there has to be a fixed destination in view, and there has to be vigilant, 24/7 attention given to every movement of the rudder to make sure the ship stays on course.
Conversely, if there is no established destination in view, then who cares what the rudder does? It could be set to where the ships just goes in circles, but so what? We weren’t going anywhere in the first place. If a destination has been decided on, but no attention is given to the position of the rudder, then there’s no hope the destination will be reached, right?
So let’s start with the destination of your life — your life’s purpose. Is that clear to you? Do you have it written down somewhere where you can repeatedly remind yourself of it? Can you easily complete the following sentence, Jesus, more than anything in this world I want to…. If not, then that’s the place to start. And it seems to me a life’s purpose needs to have two parts to it, a vertical and horizontal part. In other words, (part 1) What do you always want your relationship to the Lord to be like? That’s the vertical part — spell it out. (part 2) What do you want to always be doing in every contact you have with someone else? In other words, what kind of influence do you want to have on each person you come in contact with? — define that.
Once you have your life’s destination in view, then it’s time to constantly examine the position of the rudder.
Here’s a helpful prayer to that effect: Psalms 139:23-24 Then with the Lord’s search light on us we can ask: What is motivating me to think (say or do) the thoughts I’m about to think (say or do) right now? Does it square up with my life’s purpose? I'm beyond convinced that to have a well defined life's purpose and then use it to ruthlessly examine our motives goes a long way to preparing us for Jesus' return.
