Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and on today's episode, I want to provide you with five questions to assess your prayer motives. We all pray for many things, and that's perfectly normal, but it's so important to assess our motives in prayer so that we can align our hearts with God's will. Prayer is not about getting God to do what you want. Prayer is about aligning your heart with what God wants. I recently made a list of prayer requests that I hear regularly. None of these are wrong. I just want to give you a picture here in your mind. We have, you know, Lord heal my cold all the way to Lord Heal My Cancer, prayers for surgery, prayers for safety, job promotion, raises, priority registration for kids in private school, help for your business, Lord fix my spouse, help my kids win their tournament. For college students, Lord, give me good roommates, make everything go smoothly in this or that situation. And then here's one for your Christian dictionary. We brought this up recently in our church. Somebody prayed for traveling mercies. That is a Christian ease phrase. For Lord, please help there be no problems on my trip. If you have watched the news lately, you could pray for traveling mercies. I think you ought to pray for traveling mercies. You could pray for them all you want, and it might not help. People are crazy and the airports are overrun. Look, none of those things are wrong. But here's what I would propose. If you had a scale and you could weigh the motives of those prayers, how heavy would they be on your life, your way, your status, your comfort, the American dream, or how heavy would they be with gospel focus? The Bible gives us a picture of prayer that is much less American dream and earthly, and much more heavenly minded and eternal. And so you and I were going to pray for very good things, but a vibrant prayer life and solid spiritual growth is anchored by a focus on the greatest things, and we are wise if we'll assess our motives. It's really important to assess our motives when we pray for things because of a very strong statement in James chapter four, verses one to five. I want to break this down for you and then give you the five questions for assessing your own motives. Let me read this to you. James writes, What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members, referring to you and your body? You you have these lusts and pleasures. You want what you want, and it wages war inside of you. You lust, verse two, and you don't have, so you commit murder. You are envious, and you can't obtain, you can't get what you want, he's saying. So you fight and you quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, listen to this, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. And as if that wasn't sobering and convicting enough, James goes further and says, You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility or the word enmity towards God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. What is James saying? He's saying, Look, you're asking for a lot of things, and you're not getting them because you've got the wrong motives. You really only want all this so you could have more pleasure, more stuff, more money, more status, more comfort, and more of your fill in life. You're being an adulteress, if you will, with your relationship to God. You have a friendship with the world. You love the world. You're an enemy of God when you love the world. And then he says, or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell within us. It's a difficult passage in that particular verse, but in the original Greek text that this was written in, you basically have an expression about the fallen spirit of a man that leans towards envy and selfishness. And Scripture points to this truth over and over and over again. I think of a very, very common cross-reference when talking about sin that I think we should point to time and time again. Genesis 4, verse 7, when God is warning Cain that sin is crouching at his door and it wants to dominate him and take over. I think of Jeremiah 17 9, which is another important verse to keep in the back of your head when you're assessing your motives in your heart. The prophet Jeremiah declares, the heart above all else is deceitful. And so we do well to seek the Lord regarding our motives. When we get honest, our prayers may be noble on the outside, but not necessarily be pure on the inside. At the same time, and I want to press in on this a bit here, we are so quick to judge the decisions and the outcomes of others without pausing to assess our own hearts. We are so quick to judge people in their lives, in their possessions, in their decision-making processes, in their convictions, and we assess it all from the outside without ever pausing to think why they may have made that decision, or maybe there's other angles besides our vantage point. I want to give you some scenarios I personally know of that involve people's prayer lives and things they have personally asked me to pray for. Now I'm not going to name anybody's names here. These are personal, but I want to give you these scenarios because they ought to humble us and make us careful to judge the motives of others and focus more on our own motives through these five questions that we'll cover to land the plane on this episode. I want you to think right now of a family who may be adopting children. I know of several who are adopting children, and I know their prayers, and I pray for these things along with them. Our church does, our friends, our family, and extended family do. Prayers for the right child to be matched, prayers for their own peace and wisdom in the process, prayers for favor with the agency, favor with the birth mother. I have even heard of families praying for wisdom with the right car to fit all the car seats and to make the right decision because their family is going to grow, grow, grow because they keep adopting babies. And so you have these scenarios in which people are praying for a lot of different things. There could be many components to their prayer, just like components to a ship. But the undergirding anchor is a focus on God's will and what God would want. How quick are we, especially in the church today? You see someone roll in the church parking lot with a new car and everyone starts judging. Oh, wow, they must be just living it up, or this or that, or the other, and then you don't even realize maybe somebody bought a new car because they're adopting a bunch of babies and they need to fit more car seats in it. We should slow down. Maybe somebody got a raise at their job and they were praying for God to provide, and He did abundantly more than they ever imagined, and they increase their giving through the roof to gospel work, and then the company provides them with a car, and it's a really nice car, and then they roll into church, and people are like, oh wow, what a materialistic person they must be. Meanwhile, it's the company car. The company chose the car, gave them a really nice car, gave them a huge raise with it, and all that ever changed was their increase in giving. Slow down, friends. Don't be so quick to judge motives. Look at your own. I think of another family I know of. They sold their home to move closer to the church. They had prayed about being better connected to their local community, they prayed about stewardship of time with commuting, they prayed about where they worked, their wisdom with their assets, and then eventually they made the move. They sold their home for a large profit, they gave a generous portion of the church, and it was a tremendous blessing to the mission of God. All along, they were assessing their motives. Lord, what do you want us to do? How can we best steward our situation? And so they made that decision. Well, before you get too hot on your seat there and think that I'm saying you gotta all sell your home, move next door to your church, and give the money away, let's slow down. I know of another family. And they stayed in the home they've lived in for years. They were praying as well about how to be good stewards in this economy and this world. They were praying as well about how to be more effective in gospel work with what God had given them. And instead of selling their home and moving closer to the church, they decided the drive wasn't too bad. They could renovate their home, knock out a wall, host more families from the area, evangelize more neighbors, create a gospel rich community during the weekdays, like a little oasis out there where they lived, a little further away from where their local church was, and then commute to worship and serve on Sundays. That decision expanded the reach of the local body, was a blessing to the mission of God, and guess what? Their motivation all along was to use what God had given so they could be busy about the father's business. Friends, we've got to make sure we are not presuming the motives of others. Careful with the outside, focus on your own motives on the inside. We all know of a wonderful missionary partner here at For the Gospel. Brooks Bucer. He's been on the show, he's one of our contributors, he's preached at our church, he's one of my living heroes in the faith, even though he would despise being referred to as that. Brooks, his wife Nina, their son Bo were praying about how to use their lives to take the gospel forward. So they left San Diego Dreams to move to Papua New Guinea to reach an unreached people group. They sold it all, left it all, and took off. That was a huge blessing to the mission of God. Now, 14 years later, they train other people to do that. And I asked Brooks one time, you know, man, should everybody do this, or what would you tell people in first world America? And he never said, sell it all, give it away, do this, do that. Because there's this concept that American money sends missionaries. So you have people that are holding the rope, if you will, who haven't sold everything. No, they have their income, they have their money, they have great means, and they hold the rope. And then there's other people like Brooks and Nina who go down the well, if you will, and there are people who hold the rope and people who go down the well. There is money from the first world and from people who didn't sell everything and they didn't give it all away yet. They have money, they make great income, they give their money to do those things, and they make more money to give more money to do more of those things. And then there's other people who sell it all. There's some people who sell their home, they give all the money to the church, they move to some little apartment near the church. God bless them. That's awesome for the mission of God, for them and their home and their convictions, their motives, and their prayer life. And then there's other people who stay about 25 to 30 minutes from the local church building, by the way. That's not where the spirit of God resides. The spirit of God is in me right now and in you right now. And they decide to leverage their wealth, their assets, and what they have to create an outpost and still commute to the local building, brick and mortar assembly place where the people of God come and the Spirit of God is filling and dwelling all of those people and the praises of God rise to the heavens. Do you see how many different people in the body could be praying about different things? And so long as we assess our motives and look in the mirror and let Scripture be the filter, you and I get to be a part of what God is doing. We get to give Him glory and watch as He does different things through different people, but the common denominator of effective prayer and a fruitful body of Christ is a faithful assessment of motives in prayer, and those motives are rooted in the gospel. That is so important. So let me give you five questions to assess your own prayer motives. Ready for these? Why am I praying for this? Number one. Why are you praying for what you're praying for? Do you want that new fill-in-the-blank for selfish, superficial reasons? Do you want what you want? And it's the basics of life. It's what Jesus describes in Matthew 6 as food, clothing, and shelter, the way that people were worried about what they were going to have or how they're going to eat. And he says, Look at the way I clothed Solomon. Look at the way that the lilies are clothed, and I'm my eye is on the sparrow. I've got you covered. Seek ye first, Matthew 6.33, the kingdom, and all these things will be added unto you. Are you asking the Lord for the basics? It's okay to say, Lord, I want provision. I need provision. Or are you asking God for great things and abundance in what you have or how you live or where you live or what you do? Well, that may not necessarily be sinful. Maybe you're asking God to bless you immensely because you have the spiritual gift of giving and generosity and you want to do more for the kingdom of God. You go, Lord, bless me with wealth. I won't hold on to it. I'll get rid of it for your kingdom. Please increase me that I might be a useful gospel patron. Why are you praying for this? You know Hannah prayed for a baby? You know, so many times in the Bible we see different people praying for different things. There's nothing wrong with wanting these things. It's just important to look in the mirror and ask, why am I praying for this? Number two, where is this kind of request or maybe the principle behind this request found in Scripture? Are there places in the Bible that could shed light on what you're praying for? When you're asking for something to do with your children, when you're asking for something to do with your marriage, when you're petitioning God for something to do with favor or open doors at work or what have you, you can look and see different ways in Scripture that God sheds light on prayer. I think of Nehemiah. He's a cupbearer to the king. And he gets asked by the king, what do you want? And he goes and prays, and he had asked the Lord for clarity. He had a dream to rebuild the wall, and he wants it to be great for the glory of God. And you could see that he's asked, What do you want? And he asks for what he wants, and the Lord opens the door. It's okay to ask the Lord for things. The question is, What's your motive? Number three. So we have why am I praying for this? Where is this kind of request found in Scripture? Number three, who will benefit from this request being answered? I think it's really helpful for us to make a list of ways that God could use this answered prayer. Now, I think I would caution us all not to be deceitful in our hearts and paint a picture and put it before the Lord and go, look, God, if you do this, this is gonna really make your name great. Oh, this is really gonna help you when all along we're just trying to get what we want. I'm not talking about manipulating God or some misapplied version of Jacob wrestling with God and we're going, I'm gonna keep petitioning you until you do what I want, Lord. I would be careful with some of that, necessarily motives. But who will benefit from this request being answered? Are there ways in which God's name will be hallowed? Are there people who would benefit? Who you think that the Lord cares for? And is this gonna help the poor? Is this gonna help the orphan? Is this gonna help the widow? Is this gonna prove to be an example to your children? You know, like memorial stones in the Old Testament. I've heard of people praying for things and the Lord to provide in certain ways, and one of the motives was, Lord, show our children your faithfulness through this answered request. Number four, what will my attitude be if I don't get what I'm asking for? Isn't that such a helpful request or assessment of our request? Lord, if you don't do this, how's my attitude? That'll tell you a lot about your motives. If it's selfish and it's for you, you're gonna be really upset if he doesn't do it. If your motive is for the glory of God and according to his sovereign will, then enjoy the process of seeing it answered or not, but having your attitude still be rooted in gratitude. Finally, number five, how does either outcome bring God glory? Whether it's answered prayer or unanswered prayer, whether you get what you want or you don't, how does either outcome bring God glory? This is going to help you assess your motives because if you, like me, are praying for a family member who, like our son Timothy, who has cancer, I pray that the Lord would heal him. And if he does, I could certainly say, Lord, if you were to heal Timothy's cancer and if doctors could never find it again, there would be no other explanation except God did something great. Glory be to God. So if you could just confuse the doctors with that one, that would be really awesome for your name and my witness in those doctor visits. But Lord, if you don't, and my son lives with cancer and lives to declare your glory in the midst of it, then you'll receive glory. Or, Father, if he goes to be with you in glory much earlier than I would ever desire as his earthly father, but you know best as the heavenly father, then we will bring you glory. And if not, if not healing, you're still good. You're still faithful. We can give you glory in the midst of that. I think of you and I in often moments of need, we cry out to God for provision for things. Or maybe you're listening to this and you think, I want a house. I'm praying for the Lord to provide a home. And the economy's really bad. It's really hard to make strides financially. We've been trying and trying. I would just want to have a home because I want to host people in my home and I want to show hospitality. I know I can do that in a small little apartment, but I really just want to, and you can express that to the Lord. Well, if he doesn't answer that prayer right now, it would bring him glory still for you to be faithful with what he's given. And if he provides something else or something more, you can use that to be a blessing to others, and it brings him glory to use what he's given. How does either outcome bring God glory? So, number one, why are you praying for this? Number two, where is this kind of request found in Scripture or a principle that's attached to it? Number three, who will benefit from this request being answered? Number four, what will my attitude be if I don't get what I'm asking for? And number five, how does either outcome bring God glory? I hope this episode and those questions and even the scenarios that I laid out would bring balance and gospel focus to your prayer life. I hope that you and I would give pause to be cautious with judging the motives or circumstances of others. And I pray that you and I would be much more diligent with searching our own motives. That's not only going to create joy in your heart, by the way, but greater unity in the church as we operate with 1 Corinthians 13 love. We hope, bear, believe, and endure all things. Thanks for listening. For loads of free digital resources, go to furthegospel.org. You can learn more about our team, our vision, our mission, as well as sign up to become a monthly gospel patron if you want to help us produce more free videos and put out resources every single day. For daily videos and spiritual encouragement all over social media, make sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. And subscribe on YouTube where we post all our videos and you could share them or use them with your church or small group. Lastly, if this podcast has been a blessing to you, drop us a review on Apple. This helps us with visibility so more people can see and know about the podcast and be encouraged by sound doctrine. I'll be back next Monday with another episode for now. Keep on living for the gospel.