ARE MY MOTIVES UPRIGHT, TRUE AND HUMBLE?
It usually happens when everything looks totally fine on the outside. You’re saying the right thing, offering a helping hand, or stepping up to serve where there’s a need. On paper, it’s a good deed. But then, in the quiet moments before you fall asleep, that little voice creeps in: Why did I really do that?
Let’s be honest with each other—the human heart is messy. We like to think we know ourselves, but it is incredibly easy to hide our search for validation under the guise of doing “good Christian work.” Jeremiah 17:9 puts it bluntly: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The truth is, we can’t even fully untangle our own hearts without God’s help.
So, how do we honestly check ourselves? How do we figure out if our inner intentions are actually upright, true, and humble?
1. Upright: What are we aligning with?
To have upright motives means we are looking up at God’s standard, not looking around at what other people expect from us. When our motives are upright, we care more about what God sees than what the crowd sees. Proverbs 21:2 reminds us, “A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.”
Next time you’re about to make a big move or even give a piece of advice, stop and ask yourself: Am I doing this because it’s right in the eyes of the Lord, or because it makes my life easier and keeps people happy with me?
2. True: Are we keeping score?
A true motive doesn’t have a hidden agenda. It doesn’t come with fine print or an expectation of a payback—whether that’s a favor down the road or just an emotional ego boost. It’s so easy to offer “selfless” help while secretly keeping score in our heads.
God desires truth in our innermost parts. In 1 Chronicles 29:17, King David prays, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.” A true motive doesn’t wear a mask. If our motives are true, our private thoughts match our public actions, and we aren’t trying to manipulate an outcome.
3. Humble: Who gets the spotlight?
Humility isn’t about beating yourself up; it’s just about thinking of yourself less. When it comes to checking our motives, humility asks a really sharp question: If someone else gets the credit for what I just did, am I still happy it got done?
If you feel a little knot of resentment in your stomach when your name is left off the thank-you list, the motive probably wasn’t humility. It was pride looking for a stage. Jesus spoke directly to this in the Sermon on the Mount when He warned us not to do our good deeds before men to be seen by them (Matthew 6:1). Humble motives are perfectly content to stay anonymous because knowing the Father sees us is more than enough.
Letting God Do the Searching
If we try to audit our own hearts by ourselves, we’ll just end up making excuses. We are all experts at defense lawyering our own flaws while prosecuting everyone else’s.
We need to step away from the pressure of performing and just let God look inside. Like the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
It’s a scary prayer to pray, but it’s the only one that actually sets us free. Let us know how we can pray with you today!
I created this space as a welcoming home for candid life discussions, faith, and purposeful community. My journey has been anything but conventional—from navigating childhood moves to Europe, spending 40 years in the printing industry, and living across two vastly different worlds in Zimbabwe and the United States, God has spent decades quietly forming my heart before officially calling me into pastoral ministry. Recently ordained and commissioned as a pastor, I write from a place of real, lived experience, openly sharing the highs of deep faith alongside the raw seasons of depression, doubt, and navigating life’s unexpected detours. Since establishing this journal back in 2005, my mission remains simple: to listen without judgment, share honest testimonies, and encourage you to slow down, press pause, and discover how to shine brightly for Jesus in our everyday lives.