God Motivation in the Irritating Things

Our degree of true God motivation perhaps comes out the clearest in the midst of the irritating circumstances we experience.

Today is my day off from work. It hasn't started out as pleasant as I would like. It seems that our three year old, Titus, finds it necessary to come into our room and sleep in our bed in the middle of the night on a regular basis; we only have a double bed (double means "two," not three, and seeing how my wife Gen is 5 months pregnant, it doesn't mean four either). Titus then found it equally necessary this morning to be fully awake by 6:00. Stumbling out of bed, this meant about five fairly unrestful hours of sleep for me after a full shift of work the evening before. Of course he then finds it necessary to act completely loony and noisy, probably to help keep himself awake after not enough sleep. Gen, having not slept well either, got up around 8:30 and shortly experiences the joy of morning sickness over the toilet on multiple occasions. Ah well; project time. Titus and I head outside so that I can work on putting up a small make-shift fence in which to do some brush burning. It's hot...and the posts won't drive on account of the amount of rock in the soil. Good thing I have post-hole digger...that isn't making it through the rock either. The Christian expletives are flying through my mind, ones that will shortly turn into unChristian ones. Titus senses my irritation and says something to the effect of "Mercy-gracious!" Maybe I actually say Christian expletives sometimes too. Hmmm. You get the point.

I haven't spent much time being God motivated today, but I wonder what it would look like if I had. Let's start with the wee hours of the morning. In Psalm 88:13, we read, "...in the morning my prayer comes before you." Practicing the example given in this verse would have set my heart on a God motivation track, reminding me of my need for Him to set my heart and mind in the right place no matter how tired my body might have felt. I would have started out with my gaze upon Him instead of on myself. And what about dealing with my loony son? I'm not sure how ready he is for Proverbs 27:14, "Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing." But at least for my own heart, a God motivated thought could have been, "children are a heritage from the LORD" (Ps. 127:3). What a blessing it is to have a healthy son who loves to be around me. Then there is my wife, napping as I write this to try and keep the sickness at bay. What a jewel she is, round little belly and all! "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her" (Eph. 5:25). The church in and of itself does things far more irritating that puking over the toilet. Oh how I need to look at Jesus on the cross the second I would start to feel frustrated with my wife in the midst of any moment of temptation to love her less than I should. "Sleep sweetly, my darling." Finally, the fence. Do I really have to be God motivated in the midst of things like that? Isn't it enough to just keep myself from actually cursing or flying off the handle at my son for asking so many questions while I'm trying to get something done? "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). Had I entertained the thought of working to God's glory, perhaps in the place of Christian expletives would have been thoughts like this, "Lord, help me to work on this in such a way that shows that my true fulfillment does not rest in things like finishing projects, showing myself productive and competent, or having everything work out perfectly for me. Show me how to work on this little fence with a song in my heart and on my lips that shows my little boy that You are my treasure in the midst of all circumstances."

If I am to be a truly God motivated person, I must be so in the irritating moments. I must let go of my desire to be self motivated and instead be released into the hands of God for Him to steer my heart, mind, and body in the right direction, a direction that is always toward Him and His desires and away from all the things I would seek after and engage in outside of Him and His will for me.

Lord, help me to have God motivation while working through the irritable things.

God Motivation

God Motivation is the place wherein the Christian is fueled solely by God and toward God to the glory of God.  It comes from a desire to see everything in one's life flow from and toward the God of the Bible. All thoughts, desires, and actions must be found flowing from Him in the sense that He would be in every way pressing and pushing the disciple into the place of being infused by Him yielding a life increasingly pleasing to Him. Such then flows directly into the “toward Him” thought, in that every beholding of Him would be the motivator in any movement in any direction. And so, it is my great desire to explore what it might look like in life to recognize God always in some sense to be both behind me and before me so I might perform all out of God Motivation, that He might be most glorified in and through me.