Human society is built upon a balance of personal interests. Selfish personal interest is the motive behind all sinners conduct. As a Christian, I still can have sinful desires, foolish desires, proud desires and at the same time, have godly desires. How can I distinguish my desires? Sinners (even though I am saved) I am not basically good without Christ in me because I live in body that carries sin and my struggle will be in the core of my heart. Obviously, my human heart is very selfish. My heart is the source of my emotions, thoughts and motives. My heart is the place of conscience. My heart is the part of my being where I desire, deliberate, and decide. I just have to know what God wants and if I don't glorify correctly, my spiritual actions will be worthless.
My self-interest motives conduct even though it is part of my fallen nature, is sinful and if I am not careful as I did during my prodigal days, it is very destructive and can lead to tragic. The real danger is that someone may overlook self-interest motive for human conduct and go on serving our own interests under a disguise of godliness. And that is a mistake that I cannot afford to make. My mistakes of the past are learned mistakes and I am not going let myself overwhelmed over those mistakes. I am going to keep my mistakes in my thoughts, learn from them and do my best not to them again in the future.
Scriptures states that my own interests before God is sin, in God's point of view. The Word of God exposed the sin of self-interest and that I am to live God-centered and others-centered life. If I am seeking God out of my own selfishness (self-interest) other than my personal salvation with Jesus Christ is a form of idolatry which is sin. I need to guard myself and be on the watch against any visible and invisible objects of worship that belongs only to God.
The cross is a symbol of the selfless, others-centered life of Christ. Love alone can make my conduct acceptable to God. My motives in my Christian life should be both holy and genuine. When I am involved in ministries, my Christian service motive is important to God because it is motive that gives to every holy act that Glorifies God. I need to "take delight in the Lord, and He will give me my heart's desires" (Psalm 37:4). The Bible reminds me that I am to worship and glorify God daily. I need to pray to God daily or sin will keep me from God. I am to read the Bible daily and walk in His steps (2 Corinthians 4:10). With Christ inside me, God has granted me the ability to understand the truth and live accordingly (1 John 1:5-6). I am God's letter, written in my heart to be known and read by everybody. I am to show that I am a letter from Christ, the result of His ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of my heart (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).
I need to remember that God needs no support from me or any other Christians. One of the hardest thought for believers is that God does not need our help because God can do anything without our help. In the whole New Testament, what is the primary motive to be a Christian? I am being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5). I am to offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is my Spiritual act of Worship. I will not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by renewing of my mind with the Word of God. By understanding the Word of God, I will be able to test and approve what God's will is; His good, pleasing and perfect Will (Romans 12:1-2).
Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV) "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " '
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: '
Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV) And now these three remain: faith, hope and
love. But the greatest of these is
love.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." (NLT)
In Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do." (NLT)
In Proverbs 21:2, "People may think they are doing what is right, but the Lord examines the heart." (NLT)
1 Timothy 1:5 (NIV) The goal of this command is
love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Galatians 5:6 (NIV) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through
love.
Ephesians 3:17 (NIV) So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in
love.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)
We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by
love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1584?-1656), English colonist and soldier. Hired by the Pilgrims to accompany them on the Mayflower to the New World, Standish was the military leader of the new colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621, where he explored the territory, tended the sick, trained a militia, and fought Indians. He later served as assistant to the governor and as treasurer of Plymouth Colony. He helped establish the town of Duxbury in 1631.
There is no factual basis for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's account of Standish's wooing of Priscilla Mullens in his poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" (1858). Henry W. Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Standish and James R. Lowell's Interview with Miles Standish are wholly fictional.
