Daily Devotional 5/3/26
Proverbs 16:2 (NIV): All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
The Hebrew word translated “pure” means “clear”. It can also be translated “clean”. It comes from a word that means “to be transparent or clean”. One of the things I have most definitely learned in my life is that my own motives are not always understandable to myself. I will do things in my life and wonder why exactly I did that thing that went so horribly wrong. I will wonder why my behavior at certain points in my life was so not what was needed for the situation. I have also developed ways over the years to fully justify my bad decisions by coming up with what sounded like justified motives. Yet, things in my heart still remain hidden by me to me. I have developed defenses up over the years that cloud what is truly in my heart. I have developed ways to make myself look good and be safe. I have developed ways to stay hidden. God does not want us to deceive ourselves. God definitely does not want us to live anywhere other in the light of the LORD. Today, may we allow the LORD our God to come into our lives and help us to understand more fully our own motives and to take those motives and allow the Holy Spirit to justify us and make us pure in God’s image and not our own image.