The ansewer is found in Jer. 17:9-10. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart and know the mind."
We might have the best of intentions and truly love the Lord, but He says our hearts deceive us and lead us astray. We may have no idea that we are off track. But the Lord does. He examines our secret motives and He knows all things.
Our hearts can fool us into thinking that we're doing this or that for the Lord, but the Lord can examine our motives and show us we're often doing things to benefit ourselves and not Him. We can protest vehemently, but He knows the thoughts of our hearts.
It's an easy thing to remedy, however. Don't you think if you asked the Lord to divulge what is in your heart and any wrong motives that He would graciously reveal these hidden things and readily restore you?
We get busy and just rely on Him to understand that we love Him and that our hears are in the right place. However, it's our responsibility to reserve some special time before Him to examine our hearts for wrong motives. Some things may surface immediately and others may take a while for the Lord to orchestrate situations that reveal the hidden truth.
You may feel you're too busy for this, but it's actually a preventative measure and the benefits are numerous. The alternative is to postpone this little housekeeping job 'til the place is falling down around your ears and you're in so much trouble you don't know where to start!
