Purity of Purpose

January 26, 2008

Matthew 21
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers."

One of the challenges of being in the ministry is to get the "it's my job" mentality. Every time I get the mentality that I need to be at the church because I'm being paid to do so, I make God's house of prayer into a den of robbers. In other words, I make it a place of business. Or a place of obligation.

How about you? Do any of your actions make God's house anything else other than a place of worship and prayer? An obligation, an expectation? A social club?

What is your main motivation for meeting at God's house? I venture to say that most of you will say to worship God. But are you like me and occasionally lose sight of the main thing? If our goal is to draw closer to God, let's not allow even our motivations to get in our way - and one to do that is to look at our purity of purpose.