pSometimes it’s tricky to tell where your motives are coming from. Like when you’re praying for someone and suddenly realise that your prayer’s gone full-blast sermon. Or when you’re offering to help on the church rota just when it overlaps with someone who happens to be a bit pretty. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things,’ says Jeremiah (17:9 ESV), and he’s probably on to something there.br /
Yesterday we read about how motives like feeling needed, respected, and wanted can compete with the motive of love for Christ. But when we decide in our hearts that love for Christ is our main drive in life, then we’re cleaning up the competition. In our relationships, in our life plans, in the choice of what we spend that spare £3.50 in our pocket on (but actually though), we make space for a simpler way to live. When joy in God is a first-thing-in-the-day matter, it filters naturally into all that we do. That doesn’t mean our motives will always be 100% accurate (remember Jeremiah’s warning; we’re still human here). And it’s not that life situations get simpler. But it does mean that we can start to trust ourselves in those everyday decisions. Our joy in God gives us a simple place to live out from. Want some more Bible for that? Go to Proverbs 17:22. Having a heart rooted in joy is a remedy to the gloom in this world. /p
pWhat now?br /
Look back at your free-writing from yesterday. Reflecting on them, write through some answers to these questions: What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you? (Top tip: free-writing then reflecting on your writing after a day’s break is a great way to journal.)/p