Hidden Motives

Proverbs 20:5 (AMP) Counsel in the heart of man is like water in a deep well, but a man of understanding draws it out.

• (MSG) Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart; a wise person draws from the well within.


• (NIV)  The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.


• Proverbs 18:4 (AMP)  The words of a [discreet and wise] man's mouth are like deep waters [plenteous and difficult to fathom], and the fountain of skillful and godly Wisdom is like a gushing stream [sparkling, fresh, pure, and life-giving].


• Jeremiah 17:9 (AMP)  The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?

There seems to be two meanings taken from this one verse: the first is that righteousness is deep in the heart (of a righteous person) and the wise person draws deeply from the well of his/her own heart; the other, is that deep within the heart of a person are his/her true motives and the wise person spends the time to draw those motives out. Because our hearts are desperately wicked in their natural state, and even when we have become new creations, old vestiges of that self-will must be cleaned. It follows that it is even more imperative for the Believing Leader to discover and/or reveal by probing, the intent of not only his/her heart but also of those on the team.

Awhile back, I had a Board meeting which fits this verse - the plans of the CEO were not righteous; they are divisive and destructive. A series of interesting meetings revealed, by asking good questions, the deep waters of motives that did not match behavior. Looking good and being good are very, very different things. However, there were those on the Board who are supportive of the CEO for reasons only known to them and certainly unrelated to their fiduciary responsibility. The result was that at a meeting where the CEO’s contract was coming up for review, the Board split evenly on the firing of this person absent the vote of the chairperson. That vote keep the CEO in place and it was but a few years later that same Chair had to fire the CEO.

What strikes me in this story is not what happened, but the application to my own life. It is far easier to look at that situation and see the role I played in drawing out the truth of motives than it is to apply the same discipline to my own life. Polonius’s advice to Laertes might apply here:
This above all – to thine own self be true,      And it must follow, as the night the day,      Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Being true to one’s self, for the Believer, is a process of using God’s Word, prayer and the accountability to other believers to search the heart. In the counsel of others, we can apply the first meaning to this verse as we present a business issue to a small group of trusted Believers and let their questions “search our heart.” Sometimes this is painful, but the faster hidden motives might be revealed, the faster we can repent and move on. We don’t want to be like the CEO in my story, who thinking he had beaten the system, continued to behave in a self-serving manner and finally paid the price. We all pay the price:  some in this life: all in the next life.

Find wise people. Draw from their well. Use that water and the water of the Word to wash over you and cleanse you. I need it. I’m betting you do to.

Copyright (c) 2006 by P. Griffith Lindell