“When the Lord comes, He will bring our deepest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. And then God will give to everyone whatever praise is due.” (1 Corinthians 4:5 NLT)
According to the Apostle Paul, before all our works are evaluated God is going to reveal the private and secret motives of our heart. Since that is an ultimate and certain reality it would be the better part of wisdom for us to pray about the motives of our heart on a regular basis. We should also touch this issue of motives as we consider the will of God for our life.
THE SIXTH STEP: Examine the motives of your heart as you seek to know the will of God.
Why do you want to know the will of God for your life? That is an important question. We are incredibly egocentric and self-centered creatures. We naturally come to every situation with the inherent question in our hearts, what is in this for me?
The Word of God associates our motives with our hearts and the Bible tells us that above all things our hearts are deceitful. Jeremiah tells us our hearts are so deceitful only God can know them (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Do you want to know the will of God for the glory of God, or for your own glory and personal gain? Your answer to that question will be very important to God and to you when your works are evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ. The motives of your heart should therefore be very important to you today and every day that you live.
We should all pray with David: “Search me, oh God, and know my heart… and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
4SpiritualSecrets 
Dick,
Thanks for sharing the wisdom from above on knowing the will of God. At any stage in life, it is good to be provoked to follow the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Jim Knicely
To paraphrase Dick from sermons past, I want to want to do the will of God for God’s glory and not my own.
Dick, your messages always inspire us to long to become the people God wants us to be.
Thnaks for your continued wisdom.
great exhortation!,thank you!
I’ve changed my email address from yahoo to rrdorenbush@icloud.com. Could you change the address so I can continue receiving these wonderful devotions?