I am a masochist. My men’s group is extremely painful yet for some reason I keep going back. We talked this morning about the motives behind our good works—that often we do things not out of a love for God or a love for others, but out of a love for ourselves. We want to be recognized, we desire to receive praise, especially when we give the appearance that we are not seeking it.

I shared an example from my life of how I was glad that someone noticed a ‘good work’ last Sunday. Several of us confessed, we prayed, we broke up to go our separate ways. It is 7:57 a.m. and I’ve already done the same thing again. There is not even anyone in the office yet—I don’t need actual people present to seek to impress, I found out I can do it just as effectively by e-mail.

Pride, self-righteousness, twisted motives, reputation-seeking. These are all deep sins that take time and effort even just to recognize. But if we don’t see these ‘sins of the heart’ in our hearts, we are not living the victorious life, we are living in denial.

Another huge questions is this: Why do we want to root out these sins? Is it just because we want to be better (good for goodness sake?) Is it to join an elite group that is proud of their depth of understanding of the Gospel (how insidious is that)? Or is it because God has allowed us to turn to him, as he runs to us, is it because we know we have offended a holy God, is it because the splinters are deep and only our Father can pull it out, is it because we are in love with him and we love to please him because he already loves us?

Now it is 8:03 and I’ve done it again; I’m proud of my blog, thinking that both of you readers will be impressed. Jeremiah 17:9 reads, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” God, surely my heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure; and I can’t even fathom the depths. But you can! By your grace may I recognize and turn from these sometimes socially acceptable sins, and as I do so would you not only cleanse the deep waters of my heart, but also heal the source of the spring from which they flow.