This is the day.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? We can be deceived in our motives(practices).  Annanias and Sapphira probably thought they were doing a good thing by giving money to the church, when they were really lying to God.    Often we tend to think that we are "serving God" for all the right reasons.  We dress right, act right, talk right, and walk in the right direction.  However, when we examin ourselves in our hearts, what is our motive?  Do we follow God to be seen of men?  Do we go to church where we go, in order to be seen, or to be able to say that we go to church?  Do we give to the church just because that is the thing to do?  Why do we do what we do?  If we find it easier to skip church than to go, we probably have the wrong motive.  If we grudgingly give our money in the offering, we probably have the wrong motive.  If we enjoy the controversy of identifying with a strong church, and like to argue with others about our stand, we probably have the wrong motive.    Our motive for serving God should be two-fold.  First, it should be out of gratitude for what He has done for us, and to be pleasing to Him.  Second, we should desire to see souls saved for God's glory.  Many of our other motives are simply wrong, and should be removed from our lives.   The heart will deceive you, if you are not careful.  May we always strive to be close to God so that He may have supreme control of our hearts.  If He has control of our hearts, our hearts will not deceive us, rather they will direct us into a walk that is pure, and consistant.