Actions are important to God only when they are grounded on sound reasoning. Our intention should be to obey God's commands, to have our motives weighed by Him. If they are, then others will be able to see that our actions reflect His love, mercy and compassion.

Here are two reasons why it's important that our hearts are in the right place at all times.

God knows what's inside our hearts

Our actions are one of the main ways we communicate what kind of person we are to others. That's why it's important that we should be mindful of our actions since they show if we're indeed followers of Christ.

But no matter how close our actions seem to align with Christ's teaching as seen by others, ultimately our actions only tell half of the story. Unless we're completely honest, people may not know why we do what we do.

But God doesn't just see the external; He sees what's inside our hearts, too. And His insight works in our favour because to other people our actions don't always reflect our intention.

Do you know that examiners sometimes give marks for working out? If the final answer isn't correct but the process shows promise, then the student's work is rewarded to some extent. Sometimes when we're trying to do the right thing we make great strides on working out what kind of route God would want us to take but end up deciding on doing that which doesn't quite match up. Thankfully our God is forgiving and understanding. He knows that we're not always going to get it right when it comes to the execution but He cares that we do get it right when it comes to the intention.

We're never going to have a 100 percent pass rate so we're blessed that God counts our working out as well as the finished article.

Our intentions drive our actions

It's really obvious but, we're more likely to follow Christ's example if our aim is to follow His example. If our intention is to please others, fit in or do the "right thing" instead of the "God thing" – which is always the right thing – then we can easily be swayed off course.

In addition to this, if our intentions are out of sync with serving Christ – doing charitable acts to gain recognition among peers, not exactly to glorify the Lord – then we can delude ourselves into thinking that we are serving Him when we're really just serving our own interests.

We are not robots. If we're going to feel encouraged to do something, it's important for us to have an understanding as to why, especially when it's often hard to do.

What does showing mercy really mean? Why do we need to forgive? Knowing the answers to questions like these means that we'll have lasting motivation to commit to acting in a way that demonstrates godly principles.