How to Live on Mission with a Pure Motive

When so much emphasis is placed on what we do, it can be easy to repeat our learned pattern of thinking without giving it a second thought. We often describe ourselves by what we do for work, or if we are a SAHM, by our role of not working a traditional job. Yet what we do outwardly is an overflow of what is going on inside us; it does not define us, it merely describes what’s visible. When we begin inching our way into missional living, we find we must answer this question: what motive lies beneath what we do? To ensure it’s a pure motive that prompts us to live on mission, let’s pause our doing and reflect together on a few questions.

1. Who I do I want to notice?

One of the questions I often ask myself is who do I want to notice? It’s an instant heart check if I’ve steered off-course. My focus first and foremost should be to shower God with all the glory. If any part of my heart longs for the noticing and the praise to be directed towards me, it’s time to stop and let God recalibrate my heart.

Let’s read the first few verses of Roman 12 together in The Passion Translation. Oh, how refreshing is this encouragement to live for an audience of One!

Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.

 Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.

God has given me grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your importance. Instead, honestly assess your worth by using your God-given faith as the standard of measurement, and then you will see your true value with an appropriate self-esteem.

Pride can slide in so softly we don’t notice right away. When I find it swaying my thinking and tainting my motives, I find it helpful write out my gratitude to God. It takes my ambiguous swirl of thoughts and makes it more concrete. Once gratitude is concrete, it’s easier to offer it directly to God.

In her book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp writes this of what happens when we turn our eyes to God and seek for Him to be glorified:

Is this paradox—that giving of thanks for what is, creates an appetite for more—not for more things, but for seeking more of God to give more glory?

Giving gratitude causes us to seek the One we give our thanks. It tunes our listening so we can hear His voice above all that would distract and divide our hearts. It washes away our pride and gives us eyes for only Him. It likewise makes our motive for missional living pure.

2. Who do I hope to please?

This question encourages me to go even deeper with identifying whose attention I am seeking. My natural bent is to keep everyone around me happy and peaceful. I know I’ve said countless yeses in my life because I didn’t want to disappoint and then disrupt the peace. I’ve learned through studying the Enneagram that this too can be pride in disguise. Am I more concerned with pleasing God or the people around me? Do I seek to please for the selfish purpose of preserving the peace?

Lysa Terkurst talked of this in a post titled “People-Pleasing” she wrote reflecting on her book Unglued. She writes:

It’s part of my DNA to love others. Love them and not disappoint them. But I have to realize, real love is honest. Real love cares enough about other people to say no when saying yes would build up a barrier in the relationship. Real love pursues authenticity rather than chasing acceptance.

I can 100 percent relate. Her following line delivers it straight:

We must not confuse the command to love with the disease to please.

People-pleasing is a common struggle, though we may have varying motives for it. We might want to be praised for our unique contribution, acknowledged for our hard work, feel needed, maintain the peace, or gain approval for a slew of other reasons. Regardless of our why for people-pleasing, it begins to eat at us on the inside. We question and compare and grasp for something we can never quite touch.

Alternatively, when we seek to bring God glory through all we do and say, we find the fissures in our hearts begin to heal. People-pleasing steals our identity and makes less pure our motive, but resting in God’s presence reminds us of who we really are. Burying ourselves in Christ and seeking to make His name great spurs us to be the best neighbors we can be, with our focus on God rather than ourselves.

When we begin looking for recognition from people instead of living as if God alone is watching, let’s recall Colossians 3:23, which reminds us, “Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord himself and not merely for others. Asking ourselves who we hope to please helps us uncover if our motive is pure for joining God’s mission in our neighborhood.

3. What do I hope to earn?

I love this question precisely because if I give any answer at all, I recognize that my motive is not pure. Here is why: nothing I do or can do earns me anything in God’s eyes. Sharing meals and tools and conversations with my neighbors does not tell me who I am. My identity as a Christ-follower, dearly beloved and covered in Jesus’ righteousness, offshoots what I do. What I do never, ever defines who I am. When I get it mixed up, my motives and heart get turned upside-down.

Missional living is an invitation to draw so close to God we can’t help but begin to notice and treat our neighbors with kindness. It’s about our confidence, not in our abilities or appearance or the impression we make, but in the One who is writing our story. It’s also about recognizing that our story joins with so many other stories stretching from one end of history to the next—a whole story arc of God loving us and pursuing us and drawing us in so we can be healed and whole and wholly alive.

We let go of our compulsion to secure for ourselves through earning, and embrace the rest for our souls that comes solely from abiding in Him. Because when we learn to first abide, everything else begins to fall into place. John 15:4 in The Passion Translation ends with this: “For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.” We are far better equipped to live on mission when we stop trying to earn and focus instead on abiding.

Thank you for walking with me through these questions. They are for me just as much as they are for you. Learning to live on mission is often not a linear journey. Some lessons and questions we will arrive at more than once. Some of these questions may be ones you ask yourself often.

As we wrap up, I wanted to share one final encouragement. If you are wrestling with your reasons for wanting to live on mission in your neighborhood, my guess is that your heart is tender. You want to be moved by the things that matter to God and you long to live for Him and ever close to Him. And this is the promise spelled out in Psalm 51:17:

The fountain of your pleasure is found
in the sacrifice of my shattered heart before you.
You will not despise my tenderness
as I humbly bow down at your feet.

A heart soft and moldable allows the work of the Spirit in replacing our wrong motive for one that is pure.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, You love me too much—far too much—to leave me how I am. Remind me, again and over again, of who You see when You look at me. Realign me on the inside. Show me how to stay close to You so I can live on mission with a motive that is holy and pure. In Your precious name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.

P.S. Did you know that The Uncommon Normal is also available as a podcast? Tune in to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen!