342 – Replace Bad Motives with Good Motives

Good motives get rid of bad motives

Have you ever kept making the same mistakes and committing the same sin, even though you’ve tried to stop, you’ve tried to do what’s right, but you keep slipping back into old patterns of thinking and acting? Sometimes trying to change one behavior by a different behavior doesn’t really get at the root of the problem. We need to go a little deeper and deal with the mental and spiritual motives with our thinking to consistently do what’s right.Bad motives keep you making mistakes. You need good motives to help you stop sinning.

Now, I have often said in these Freedom Friday episodes that we all need to take an honest look at ourselves in the mirror and see if we’re sinning, if we’re making mistakes. Sometimes we kind of ignore the mistakes we’re making. We don’t want to face up to the sins that we’ve committed, but we all need to take an honest look at ourselves.

So what I’d like you to do is to think of just one thing that you’ve done wrong.

What were the bad motives?

A mistake you’ve made, a sin you committed. It doesn’t matter if it’s big or small. Now think about what was the motive behind it? What motivated you or caused you to do it? Maybe you lost your temper and yelled at someone.

Now, it may sound funny to ask the question this way, but what was your motive for losing your temper? What was the emotion you felt that caused that to happen?

Well, maybe you were afraid of not getting what you wanted. Maybe you felt misunderstood. Maybe someone lied to you or tried to take advantage of you. These are the triggers. And usually we think, “Well, it’s what that other person did, or it was the circumstance that made me do that.”

But something in you responded with some mental attitude or feeling that caused you to do that, to react that way, that caused you to make the mistake or commit the sin.

What are the opposite good motives?

Now, I want you to think of the opposite of those emotions, those triggers, those negative, bad motives that caused you to do something wrong. And so let’s look at these examples that I gave.

Well, what’s the opposite of being afraid you’re not going to get what you want? It’s trusting that God is going to give you everything you need.

What’s the opposite of feeling misunderstood? Well, it’s knowing that God sees you and understands you better than anyone else could. And if you have that feeling of God knowing and understanding you, that God sees you and loves you, then somebody else not understanding you can’t motivate you, can’t move you, or cause you to do something you shouldn’t do.

What’s the opposite of feeling betrayed or hurt? Well, it could be several things, but basically it’s trusting God that you’re safe in His care regardless of what other people do or don’t do.

Rinse and repeat

Now pick another sin or mistake you made and do the same thing. Look at the things that moved you or motivated you or caused you to make that mistake or commit that sin. Then figure out what the opposite of that is, the opposite mental, spiritual quality.

Kind of go back in and fill in the blanks with the good motives, positive and spiritual motives, like love or forgiveness or whatever it might be in the situation. The more you do this, the more peace it will bring to you.

Changing your bad motives to good motives goes deeper

All too often we try to correct one action by taking another action. If you do something bad, you try to replace it. If you have a bad habit, you replace it with a good habit. Well, that can only go so far.

The best way to quit sinning and find freedom from the guilt that you feel is to correct your motives, your thinking. That will change the way you act and what you do a lot quicker than just trying to change the action itself, because you’re getting at the root of the problem.

Jesus said we need to be born again, which in the original Greek means to be born from above. We need a more spiritual sense of our origin and identity in order to find freedom.

Paul said to put off the old man and put on the new man. We have to put off this old way of thinking that we’re a miserable sinner and replace it with the fact that we’re made in the image and likeness of God. Now, that’s kind of a paraphrase of Ephesians 4, 22, 23 and 24. And I know it’s easy to say those words, but you can do this.

Don’t listen to the material world

The world says you don’t have what you need, and so you have to break God’s commandments to get what you need. But Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In the kingdom of heaven, you already have everything you need.

The more you turn your eyes away from what the world tells you to, what is true right now in the kingdom of heaven, the more you’re going to see God’s kingdom here and now. And you won’t be tempted or even feel a need to sin. And you certainly won’t feel any guilt when you replace a bad motive that caused you to sin with a good motive, a more spiritual one from whatever happened in the past.

That’s going to strengthen you, and you’ll start to find freedom from even the temptation to sin, and from the guilt that comes as a result, or from anything that’s gone on in the past. Think about your motives. Replace any bad motives you have with good motives, and every time you do that, it makes you stronger spiritually.

_____________

James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.

Subscribe to the podcast

Make a donation to support the show

Listen and leave a review on

Bible References