You’re welcome to the Fire Place once again! Our series on The School of Motive continues today. We want to address the selfishness of man’s heart and God’s standpoint about this especially as it relates to the matters of our motives and intentions. Enjoy! There is a word that kept coming in the passage (Matthew 6: 1-8), the word is… “…that they may have glory from men”. The battle of who takes the glory when we give to others and do all sorts of good works is far more important than the exact good act being done. Who takes the glory, who get celebrated; and to whom all the accolades go to is highly important. If it all goes to man, then no heavenly reward should be expected. But if God is fully and truly glorified through all you do, then you can expect your reward from God. He owes no man anything!
The motive check is an activity we don’t need to try to toil with, rather, we must strive to make sure in all that we do, God takes the glory. It is worthy to note that sometimes, men are quick to direct the accolades to us because we are the vessels being used to do the act of goodness, but in return we must never be too slow to make it clear that all of the glory must return back to God. To attempt to share in His Glory is unimaginable! Our God is a jealous God. Man is too low, too unqualified even though he is the best of His creation, to share God’s Glory. The men that tried to keep the accolades and applauds of men to themselves were severely dealt with in the bible. An example of such is Herod the Great. The moment He succumbed to the praises and glorification of men, an angel of the Lord finished him off! Woe betides whoever attempts to share in the awesomeness of God’s Glory. The Glory is The Lord’s, always remember this in all you do!
Woe betides whoever attempts to share in the awesomeness of God’s Glory.
One character flaw that can easily sets a man off from God is selfishness. It is an anti- God’s pleasure behavior. It is an arch enemy of living for God. Selfishness is simply living for oneself alone. When all that matters to a man is to please himself and enjoy all that life has to offer to him alone, that is called selfishness! Man was never created to live for himself. Remember, man first existed in the mind of God when He declared in Genesis 1;26: …Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion…” this shows man was created based on the suggestion and clearly laid out plan of God. No man should get to the earth and then start to carve out a plan on how to go about living well and to the full maximization of his existence without first consulting His maker, God! any man living without being assisted by God on the matter of purpose discovery can be assumed to be living a life short of God’s full plan for his life! This whole act is what can be seen as selfishness as well.
God is looking forward to a generation of parents that will seek His face about the lives of their children so they can guide their God-given fruits on the right way to live in lieu with God’s plan for their lives. God awaits a generation of youths that will get it right very early In life and start paying the price for maximizing their full potentials as a step of obedience to fulfill God’s plan for their lives. Enough of living selfishly! God had it all planned out! No man born of a woman is an accident. God made us all to live for His Glory alone. We are meant to live a life that will bring accolades and honour to His being. People should look at our lives and remember quickly that the God that sent us here is a great and awesome God! when you live for God, it gives Him pleasure and draw the attention of fellow men to the awesomeness and greatness of the Person of God! if this is truly true, you can Imagine the number of ways we have robbed God of being celebrated and glorified through our lives!
I am assured you’ve been blessed by this episode. The last episode in this series comes up on Friday! As we anticipate this final part, ensure you drop your comments and follow the blog by dropping your email address so you can receive updates about the blog once a new post drops. Thanks for visiting The Fire Place!