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Writer's pictureDavid Lutes

21 – CHECK YOUR MOTIVES PULSE

1 Thessalonians 2v3a


3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you.


Always the caring, reaching-out leader, Paul was so good at combining meaning and action into one written word.  ‘Appeal’ is a blend of ‘exhortation’, ‘urging’, ‘encouragement’ and ‘comfort’ – the same root Greek word for The Comforter (the Holy Spirit). And Paul put his actions where his mouth was!  He assured them (and showed them with his authentic life) that he wasn't a misguided, unethical messenger-leader with a hidden agenda concealing a desire to use or manipulate them.  His message didn't just ‘spring up’ from out of nowhere with the objective of winning friends and influencing people. Who, in his right mind, would be willing to suffer abuse and hardship for something he knew to be a lie!?


As leaders and managers, we need to be frequently checking our ‘motives pulse’. We’ll probably always find ourselves knowingly, or unknowingly, tangled up in the knots of business priorities, devious tactics, organizational ‘politics’ or the pressures of compromise - and we may be tempted to manipulate rather than motivate. But if we can find the grace to consistently and sincerely exhort, urge, encourage and support as part of our management style, we will find it is one of the smartest ‘tricks’ up our leadership sleeves.


PRAYER IN ACTION

Lord, help me honestly check my ‘motives pulse’ and find the balance between using people to achieve business or organizational objectives, and ‘using’ people to achieve other more subtle objectives; to practice the difference between ‘motivation’ and ‘manipulation’ (even the subtle version). To exhort and encourage and urge – and even comfort – in spite of how it’s ‘done’ by others all around me.


Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 

(Psalm 51; 10-12)


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