Welcome back to “Friday Feature!” Grab a cup of coffee, relax, and enjoy today’s devotion! If you missed the last devotion, you can read it here!
My long-time friend, Bridget Williams, brings us today’s devotion titled, “Motive and Mission. Bridget is an Associate Pastor’s wife and Ordained Minister herself in the Church of God. She not only serves alongside her husband in full-time ministry, but also serves their local community of Douglas, Georgia in many areas. As a mother of 2, and Marketing Director for a Management Group, spare time is definitely hard to come by, but she would have it no other way! Give Bridget a follow! @bridge.style
MOTIVE AND MISSION
When Laura asked me to share a devotion on the Friday Feature, I began praying and searching the word for what the Lord would have me to share. When He opens a door or an opportunity to share His word, I never take it lightly. My desire is always to encourage believers and to point unbelievers to Christ. It’s all about Him. The word that kept coming to me, as I was seeking Him for what I was to say, was motive.
By definition, motive means “a reason for doing something; especially hidden or not obvious.” But what are we doing? What is our something? I believe that is our mission. Our mission is the what, with our motive being the why.
Most days, many of us just try to get through the necessary tasks and often seem to be on auto-pilot day in and day out. How in the world can those tasks be seen as spiritual? I once heard a statement from an older preacher friend:
“A secular mission, approached from a spiritual perspective is spiritual.
A spiritual mission, approached from a secular perspective is secular.”
It’s about the motive.
If you are in the workforce, or as a teacher, even your classroom, and you are bringing glory to God by “doing your work heartily as to the Lord”, then it is a spiritual work. That is your mission. If you are a stay at home mom, you have one of the greatest mission fields in your home and the lives of your children. However, on the flip side, if we take the work of the church and only focus on keeping momentum and expanding programs, then our good work turns secular and we lose the motive that God desires us to have.
One of the many challenges we face as Christians, is overcoming our selfish desires and maintaining the true priorities of our heart. In doing so, we align our motive and mission to please God.
We must keep our motive pure. The pastor of my home church would always tell the young ministers and their families that if we kept our motive pure, then everything else would fall in check. I have seen that ring true in many instances. Our highest motive should be to glorify God in all that we do. In I Peter 4:11, the scripture says “… if any man speaks, speaking as it were oracles of God; if any man ministers, ministering as of the strength which God supplies: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” We don’t do any of this for us – all that you see and you don’t see is for the glory of the Lord. Jesus is the mission!
Lord, help us to survey our heart and keep our motive in check. It can be all the difference in how we make an impact on who we come in contact with on a daily basis. Remember, the right motive is no good with the wrong mission and the wrong motive with the right mission is just as bad. God helps us to keep our Motive and our Mission aligned how it would please you and according to our identity in YOU!
Wonderful devotion today! ❤️😊
It sure was!