What is Motivating You?

What is your motivation for the things that you do?  Have you taken time recently to examine your motives?  I mean really, what is driving you?

      I ask you this question because I received an early, predawn visit from my heavenly Father and He asked me that very question. Honestly, we know that when God is asking us questions, it is not because He does not know the answer. Usually, it is because He is revealing something to us. He is revealing something about ourselves and ultimately some truth about Him that can be applied to what has been revealed about us. I know that was a crazy sentence but I am just saying that when God reveals some weakness, some ugliness, some strength or some beauty, He always follows it with some "I AM" statement that will adjust our response to the truth revealed. His truth will always help us to deal appropriately with the truth about our condition.

     Back to my early morning visit, God asked me, "what is motivating you?" actually, He said, "what is driving you?" You see, I am a very driven, overachieving, high driver type of person. I have to work really hard to go at a normal pace and not constantly work in high gear. Yes, to some degree, this is how I was created, but has the fallen state in which I was born perverted my God given drive? That is a digression, a discussion for another day. 

       “What is driving you?" In the predawn hours, I was blessed to receive a counseling session with Daddy, with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The answers to the question began to flow in my mind. You see I was still sleep and didn't have the level of consciousness needed to put my holy mask on so I could parrot the correct, assumed righteous response. Besides, I have truly tried to practice transparency before the Lord. He sees all anyway; but I had never sufficiently dealt with this question.

       I will give you this supporting information; a week ago, I asked the Lord to tell me what to pray and He told me to pray for pure motives. I began to ask God to show me my motives. Every day I have asked," God show me my motives. I desire to have a pure heart and strive to bring glory to your name. Show me when I am operating contrary to that.''  Well last night, or this morning, God began to deal with me about my motives. 

     The first thing He showed me was the little girl, hurt, defected and rejected. He shows me the affirmation that I sought, first from my family and then later from friends and associates. He showed me how I still allowed my childhood to motivate me.  There was some residue that needed to be cleaned away. He said to me, “Inadequacy, insufficiency and low self-esteem are what is driving you.” Now, any of you that know me will probably say, "You don't have those problems", but, I now see that sometimes I have been motivated by a need to be recognized, acknowledged, or to be successful for successes sake.  Not always. But if you are going to ask God to show you your motives, you should be prepared for the answer.
Well, when God asked the question, those are the words that He pulled from my brain. My past issues, while maybe not consciously relevant, were still having an impact on my motivation. How? Well, anything I do, I do exponentially. If I do something and it does not pass the perfection test, it is a failure. If I am not running the company, then I am not successful. I have set some very high standards for myself.

     Then the Lord began to remind me of our identity and inheritance in Christ Jesus.  You see, we are the workmanship of God, created for good works in Christ Jesus and He has preordained that we walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).  Additionally, we are a work in progress, destined to get better each day because He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).  He showed me that it is okay to be who you are so that you can become who God has created you to be.  You do not have to drive yourself beyond reason as you attempt to prove to the world that you are worth something.

     Regarding our worth, God settled that in Genesis.  In verse 25, God called His creation good; at that point He had not created man.  He had created all of the heavens and the earth, the sky, the moon and the sun, the birds, fish, animals and bugs.  He said that it was good.  Then He created man and verse 31 tells us that when He looked at everything that He had made, He said, “Behold, it is very good.”  You are very good.  You are priceless in the eyes of God.  This is without you lifting even a finger to accomplish anything.  Your works are wonderful, but they do not change your value for good or bad in the eyes of God.

     So, then, who are you trying to impress?  When crunch time comes, God is the first person that you will need and the only one who has the solution and the answer to all of life’s challenges.  I am not saying that we should not seek to please man; after all we are called to be witnesses of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  We need to understand what God is requiring of us and seek to please Him.  If we put our hopes and dreams in any other place, we will ultimately be disappointed.

     Finally, God shared a few more pointers with me in my counseling session.  He said that His grace is sufficient for us (2Corinthians 12:9; it is okay for us not to be perfect, because then we will always remember to lean on Him.  He said that our sufficiency comes from Him (2Corinthians 3:5) and finally, He said that He has already made all grace abound towards us so that we can have all sufficiency and abound to every good work.  He said that for inadequacy, he gave us all sufficiency.  He said that for deficiency; He has given us abounding grace.  He said for low-esteem he has given us sober thinking and a sufficient dose of faith (Romans 12:3).  So, God is saying to us, “Enter into Sabbath rest, enjoy the work, and do it for the right reason.”

     How do we respond to this knowledge?  We continue to check our motives and make sure that we are not trying to work out something that does not need to be worked out.  Your purpose, your value, and your validation were accomplished before the world was framed and then Jesus came, according to His earthly purpose and sealed the deal.  Arise and abound in every good work to the end that Jesus Christ might be lifted up to the glory of God.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Show me how to live in a way that is pure and honorable.  Help me to have pure and honest motives and to strive to glorify you with my life.  Thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit who teaches us all things that He has heard about you.  Help me to live in your presence and to submit to your will for my life.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen