Right now I'm wrestling through a concept that I believe I will eventually be teaching on at some point in the future. I haven't quite got my own brain around it yet, but I believe I am on to something. I'm thinking about motivations.
Everything we do it motivated by something. The question I'm working through is: what is the motivation behind all the things that I do? Do my motivations for doing things vary at different times? Here are some questions I am asking to get my brain and my spirit around this:
* Do we do things that look good on the outside because they are good things, but really have wrong motivations behind doing them?
* Is it possible that we sin more than we realize because our motivations for doing things are wrong, not necessarily the things we are doing?
* How do we constantly check our motivations to see if they are holy/righteous?
* Can we change our motivations for why we do things? How?
Partner with me in thinking about this topic. Let me know what you think. More to come on this later...
Look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday - I'm pumped about the service!
To me, motivation is our values that are the filter for every decision we make. Our personal value systems are so complex that we cannot understand why we do what we do. Read what Paul wrote in Romans 7:15.
ReplyDeleteEven when we do something good, we don't really know the motive. As an exercise, try to think of all the reasons for a person giving money to the church. There are probably several reasons that are even sinful. Proverbs says that all our ways seem right, but the Lord weighs the motives.
I wrote a little bit on motivation in my book, "The Type of Marriage that Endures." It's in chapter called "The Type of Conflict that Resolves Problems."
Craig Gleerup