Purer motives are desirable ...

[geetrue]

Today's message from
Oswald Chambers Journal


"If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind."

Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke.


This scripture came to my mind:


5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

My goal today is not only for God's grace to cover me, but for less sin to reach His attention.

[faithopelove]

Amen!

[JAS4Yeshua]

Good words to mediate on, geetrue. Thanks. :)

[Tamara224]

But how do we make sure that the deepest recesses of our hearts/minds are pure?

Doesn't the Bible say that the heart is deceitfull above all else?

[JAS4Yeshua]

But how do we make sure that the deepest recesses of our hearts/minds are pure?

Doesn't the Bible say that the heart is deceitfull above all else?
Yes, it does. That's why we have to ask the Lord to test our hearts and reveal any unclean ways within us.

Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

[jeolmstead]

I think that a whole lot of what we experience in this life is God showing us what he already knows about our heart.

When Jesus prophesied that all of the disciples would desert him. Peter spoke up and said he would die first!

Was he lying?

No, he was just wrong. He didn’t know his own heart.

I’m a lot like him.

John O.

[geetrue]

I think that a whole lot of what we experience in this life is God showing us what he already knows about our heart.
John O.

True, plus God has trained a lot of people for their service in heaven before they get to heaven.

I have always believed that people change very little after they die. Just a little saying I have ...

"At the moment of death that is who you are forever, but don't worry forever starts when you believe not when you die"

It refers to being saved or unsaved of course, but it also could be traced back to St Peter who was being trained to be a servant of the Lord God most high with Jesus humbling him by pointing out to Peter that the devil ahd requested to sift Peter like wheat.

Then Jesus said, but don't worry I have prayed for you. We don't have much to go on after that, except for Peter one and two, but one of the most moving letters can be found in 2 Peter 1:5-10


But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;


Saint Peter goes on to say why he was leaving the above wisdom, because his Lord and saviour had already told him how he was going to die and that he wanted to leave something behind.

What St Peter left behind humbles me ... I want to do what he said not just memorize it.

[simpleone]

Here is a nice passage:

1 John 3: 20-22
For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

:)

[JAS4Yeshua]

But how do we make sure that the deepest recesses of our hearts/minds are pure?

Doesn't the Bible say that the heart is deceitfull above all else?
I wanted to post the entire passage that speaks of the heart being deceitful. It is really a wonderful passage of Scripture and a great meditation when seen in context.

Jeremiah 17:5-11 NIV
5 This is what the Lord says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." 11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool.