When Good Things Have Mixed Motives: Letting God Examine and Refine Your Heart

What if the thing God wants to change isn't something anyone else can see?
We can be serving, encouraging, praying, helping others, and faithfully showing up. From the outside, everything we're doing may look good.
But God sees beneath the surface.
He knows when part of us wants to be noticed. When we hope someone recognizes what we've done. When we're serving Him, but if we're honest, we're also enjoying the praise that comes along with it.

In this episode of Perspectives Into Practice, my friend Sharon is back, and we're talking about something God has been revealing and refining in her own heart: her motives.

Proverbs 16:2 says, “All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.”

That's an uncomfortable verse when we actually allow it to examine us.
Sharon vulnerably shares how God has been showing her that we can do good things for mixed reasons. We can genuinely want to serve God and love people while also wanting the heart on the text, the thank you, the recognition, or the reassurance that someone noticed.

The goal isn't to become obsessed with getting every motive perfectly right. It's to be willing to bring what's actually in our hearts before God and allow Him to refine us.

We talk about confession, repentance, and why simply saying, “Lord, forgive me for my sins,” can sometimes allow us to avoid getting specific about what's really happening within us. When God reveals sin, Scripture doesn't only call us to recognize it and ask for forgiveness. He calls us to repent, turn away from it, and turn back toward Him.

That doesn't mean we'll never struggle with that sin again. It means we're willing to say, “Lord, I don't want to keep holding onto this. Help me turn from it and walk differently.”

Sharon also shares how God has used her intentional prayer life to reveal some of these motives. With more than 100 people on her prayer list, she has developed a rhythm of praying Scripture over others, texting prayers, following up, and keeping track of what people have asked her to pray about.

It's a beautiful practice of loving people well, but it's also become another place where God continues asking her: Who are you doing this for?

And maybe that's a question all of us need to ask from time to time.

• Examining the motives behind the good things we do
• Serving God without depending on recognition from others
• What Proverbs 16:2 teaches us about our motives
• Allowing Scripture to reveal what's happening beneath the surface
• The difference between conviction and condemnation
• Getting specific with God about our sin
• Confession, repentance, and turning away from sin
• Why recognizing sin isn't the same as repenting from it
• Bringing mixed motives honestly before God
• Praying for others intentionally and consistently
• Using Scripture in intercessory prayer
• Recognizing unexpected encounters God places in our lives
• Slowing down enough to let God examine our hearts
• Why hurry can keep us from deeper transformation

One of my favorite reminders Sharon gives us in this conversation is simple:

Don't hurry.

Don't hurry through your prayers. Don't hurry through your time with God. And especially, don't hurry through examining your heart.

Psalm 51 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”

But if we're going to ask Him to create a clean heart in us, we also have to be willing to let Him show us what's there.

Friend, if God has gently been bringing something to the surface in your own heart, you don't have to clean it up before you come to Him. Bring it to Him first. Name it. Be honest about it. Repent when He's revealing sin, and allow Him to continue transforming you from the inside out.

If God is teaching you something in your life right now, changing your perspective, or meeting you in an ordinary season, I'd love to hear about it. You don't need a big platform or a perfectly polished story to be a guest on Perspectives Into Practice. Visit PerspectivesIntoPractice.com to learn more.

And if you're looking for a place to connect with other Christian women beyond the podcast, come join us inside The Story Haven. It's a free online community where we grow in our faith, encourage one another, share what God is doing in our lives, and walk it out together. Visit TheStoryHaven.net or search The Story Haven in the App Store or Google Play.

If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend who might need this reminder too.