God Motivation is the state wherein the Christian is fueled solely by God and toward God to the glory of God.
(more here)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

God Motivation and the Apostle Paul

As I have been writing some on the topic of God Motivation, it has been my prayer that such a phrase be further developed only if it is true, that is, Biblical. It is very possible that these words could be regularly on my mind, sound very spiritual, and be completely false (although I don't believe that God motivation is one of those). I had to stop the other day as I was studying 1 Thessalonians to look more closely at one verse in particular. ...Though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict (2:2). Something there struck me, encouraged me, and perhaps even frightened me. The God-centeredness of the verse was what struck me. Did you catch it? When Paul and his companions were on their short visit to Thessalonica (short because they were driven out), they had boldness in their God to declare to them the gospel of God. God is both the fuel and the focus in this verse. How could it possibly be that Paul would continue to share the message that was getting him into so much trouble and causing him so much pain? God was his motivation, the One giving him courage and ambition to keep going from town to town no matter how great the opposition. But not only was God driving Paul along, He was also the the content of the message; Paul's gospel was the gospel of God.

This really isn't all that deep until you start to think about what it means. Paul's Christian journey was anything but easy, and I can only guess that he had times of discouragement where he would have to ask, "Is it worth it?" The guy was nearly beaten to death on multiple occasions for telling people that they needed to repent and trust in Jesus, which helps us to make sense of why he seemed to be practically giddy over the fact that the Thessalonian church was doing so well that people all over were encouraged in hearing about their faith. But people getting saved wasn't what ultimately kept Paul going, and I would argue that such a motivation wouldn't have been enough. If it were, Paul would have changed his message to make it more palatable, looked for ways to be seeker friendly, and tested the waters a lot more to make sure his listeners were ready for a new message. But he was God motivated, drawn along by God to make God known in the purest form (giving us the epistles of our canon!). Are Christians, particularly American Christians, ready to do this today? Am I ready to do this today? God motivation in the hearts of Christians will mean that we carry Paul's gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel that brought him much pain and, counter-intuitively, much joy. I want Paul's God motivation, and thus his joy, which will likely include and accompany his pain.

Lord God, be my motivation whatever the cost. Help me to realize that counting the cost was something I was to do when I became your disciple and must continue doing today. Give me boldness in You and help me to know no other gospel but Yours as I go.

Friday, August 22, 2008

God Motivation and a Testimony

Last Sunday I was privileged to get to share my testimony with my church family, and so I will seek to replicate that here while also expanding on some of the ideas that I shared. By way of background, my pastor asked me to be one of two people to address the congregation, and my sharing was to be centered around what God was currently doing in me or what I was learning from Him (the other individual was to share his testimony concerning more of how God had been at work in him in the past). Here it is:
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To give you a bit of framework for how God generally works in me, teaching me how to live rightly before Him, I would say that He does such largely through direct exposure to His Word. Whether through personal Bible study, listening to the exposition of His Word, or reading books by those who write about the Scriptures, it seems that I must have such in a good amount on a regular basis or I will be a distracted and frustrated person. And so, the following three things that God is currently reminding me of/challenging me with flow from such a framework.

First, God has been teaching me that He owns me. This extends beyond (but certainly does not exclude) the fact that I am His creation, but it is something that He is keeping me keenly aware of as I develop as a person in this life. I age, my family expands, I have more stuff all that time, and new responsibilities are continually added while others phase out. But in God's ownership of me, I am reminded that He owns all of me, mind, soul, and body, and that He owns all that He has entrusted to me. I have no rights unto myself, none whatsoever. This is a humbling thought and so a lesson that keeps me from one my greatest enemies: pride. I am constantly having to be aware of pride in my life for it seems always at the door, waiting to be let in. Sneaky as I am, I will seek a kind of self-centered glory in the smallest of things, wanting to appear wise, competent, together, cool, or anything else that is good by nature or at least poses as such. A Scripture that I have chewed on now and then over the past couple years is found in Jeremiah 9:23-24. Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." Any form of wisdom, might, or riches then that might appear in me I must not boast in as if they have been products of my own manufacturing. Indeed any swelling of pride that I would ever have must never go beyond the great pride in knowing and in some way understanding my great God and King! [Such an attitude would have to be a God-motivated one where I see any movement upward in spirit to be one in which I desire more of Him whom I am so proud to behold.]

This leads well into the second thing that God is teaching me: I am a sinner. It is so very clear to me that I do not live in a constant state of submission to the One who owns me. I have a very rebellious and wicked heart. God has used a man recently as my teacher to help me understand this truth and then kill the sin that is within me. His name is John Owen, a Puritan who lived from 1616-1683. In speaking of the mortification (killing) of sin, he uses very non-trendy sentences like these: Use and exercise yourself to such meditations as may serve to fill you at all times with self-abasement and thoughts of your own vileness. Read that carefully again and then consider the ways in which he says this is to be carried out: 1. Be much in thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of God and your infinite, inconceivable distance from Him. 2. Think much of your unaquaintedness of Him. People don't say things like that much any more which probably speaks volumes to the state we're in of thinking small of God while esteeming ourselves. With these thoughts is another verse I have turned around many times in my mind in recent months, Romans 14:23b: ...Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. There is so much in my life, including my thoughts, words, actions, etc. that does not proceed from faith in my Lord; and ALL those things are sin. I really don't think I'm taking this verse out of context, for Paul states it as a general truth after addressing a specific issue in the Roman church. I am a sinner, saved by grace, who has a very long way to go.

Lastly, all this leads me to the place of saying I need to grow. I don't mean this in the way that it is often said when we ask one another how our devotional time is going to get the common response of, "OK, but not as good as it could be" or the goofy phrase we frame in our home to repel people's exhortation and invoke a form of shallow grace, "Please be patient with me; God isn't finished with me yet." When I say that I need to grow, I feel a sense of urgency as I consider how far I am from where I should be, how much I need to learn, and how short this life is. I have a regular fear of growing more apathetic or less distinct as a Christian as this world presses in around me. I am taken to another passage common in my mind as of late, Ephesians 5:15-17: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what he will of the Lord is. If I am to walk in wisdom, if I am to understand the Lord's will, then I must grow in the knowledge of Him. This takes me back full circle to where I find myself so in need of exposure to His Word to fuel me toward Him.
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Those were the words in general that I shared, and as I think on them now I pray that I might be God-motivated in submitting to His ownership of me, weeding out the sin in my life that I might be more holy as He is holy (and so know Him more), and grow in Him and toward Him that His glory might be more clearly displayed in and through me.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

God Motivation in Recreation

Lighten up. That's what I feel people telling me on a fairly regular basis. I suppose that sometimes I need to do just that, but only in the times when I'm taking myself too seriously, not when I'm doing the same with God. What I observe more and more as I interact with others is that there is a general sense of "lightness" that they want to walk in. "God has a sense of humor," "God isn't going to smash me if I mess up a bit," and "Knowing God isn't about religion" are phrases people love today. The hard part in speaking against them is that there's truth to all of them. But I wonder if we feel the need to say such things mostly because they tend to eliminate some of the weightiness of God and what being one of Christ's followers looks like.

To say the opposite of all the above trendy phrases and then hold to them in an unbalanced way is probably what some people fear. For instance, if all an individual or a church can see is "God is a serious God," "God kills people for sinning against Him," and "Knowing God is about doing certain things over the course of a lifetime," then some correction would need to be made, not because these statements don't have truth to them, but because they're not the whole story. But I don't think our problem is really in the believing of these "negative statements." Our problem is that we want to see God and the Christian life as things that fit into our current comfortableness. The problem though is that God doesn't fit.

But since I'm not so sure that I really need to do a lot of lightening up (at least in the way people think I do) is the ultimate aim in the Christian walk to be serious all the time? I don't think so, at least if we mean that there must be constant sternness or a continual lack of emotion. "Rejoice in the Lord always!" (Phil. 4:4). There is a glad, emotion-filled tenor to this and many other statements in Scripture (It could even be argued that such is the nature of every word in the canon.)! But even in the verse mentioned, there is a specific type of rejoicing that is to be done: a rejoicing in the Lord.

And so what of recreation? The point that I'm slowly getting to here is that in our desire for lightness, in our passion for recreation in general, there is a tendency to recreate apart from God rather than in Him. This is why when we have "free time" (perhaps a troubling phrase in and of itself) we don't usually read our Bibles, get lost in prayer, or share Jesus with our neighbor. We instead prefer TV, movies, video games, "vegging out," or reading fluff. There would certainly be many objections to that last statement due to the legalistic way that I stated it, but think of it this way: If we endeavor to live lives where we are God-motivated in all things, does that not mean that we should recreate in ways that would flow from a seeking for His guidance and a desire to move in such a way that we would be closer to Him? Do our souls really pant for Him as a deer pants for streams of water (Psalm 42:1)? The reality is that when we feel the need to recreate, our souls are panting for something to refresh us. So again, the question is, "What will I recreate in that I might be closer to the One who satisfies?" It is not enough to satisfy ourselves with "safe" things, but with those things that God, through His Spirit, directs us in. A list won't do what wisdom must do. "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:15-17).

Lord, help me to be God-motivated in my recreation, to seek wisdom from You in how this plays out, and to never seek time away from You in my pursuit of refreshment.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

God Motivation in Evangelism

I'm often too comfortable to share the gospel with others. I tend to get along pretty well with most people, and many of the folks that I relate to on a regular basis are not Christians. I like to be liked by them, enjoy sharing little bits of life with them, and simply want them to know that I care for them in general. But I ultimately belong to Christ, not to them, and also not to myself. My life aim is (or needs to be) to know Him and make Him known to others all for the glory of His name. This would be living with God motivation.

Recently I have been burdened to pray in greater earnest for the non-Christians that I know, that God in His mercy would save them, that I might be united with them in Christ and so share fellowship with them forever. I want them to be saved so very much, which in and of itself is a supernatural work within me. Like I said, much of the time I just want to be comfortable in my relationships with people. But if my prayer is that God would save my friends, I must be fully ready to share the gospel with them. The Scriptures encouraged me in this today. 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 says: For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction... Paul's missionary work was done with God motivation. He did not go about preaching the gospel to gain glory for himself, to practice his preaching and improve his style, or to personally take people from one lifestyle to a better one. And we see here that he didn't even see himself as responsible for ultimately saving people. He came to the Thessalonians with the gospel, out of obedience to Christ, and then saw it take root as his words were accompanied by power, the work of the Holy Spirit, and full conviction in the hearts of his audience. This proved something, and Paul doesn't say that it proved he was an effective missionary (even though we would conclude that by God's grace he was!). The fact that Paul's message was accompanied by these things proved that they were a chosen people, loved by God. This is the way that he says it if we read carefully. Paul knew that God had chosen them because of the God-evidencing things that his gospel was accompanied by.

You see, a God motivated evangelism is one in which we share the good news of Jesus Christ's perfect life, atoning death, burial, and resurrection, in hopes that God will make Himself known by accompanying this message with power, the Holy Spirit, and conviction. He has already lit the match of my life and will use my light to ignite His elect using the God-fuel of power, Holy Spirit, and conviction. There is wonderful, supernatural power in this that I should so want to experience! For even if I find in sharing the gospel that my flame has been brought to a cold, hard, empty stone on many occasions, I need not fear that I have been unsuccessful in faithfulness or personal God glorification.

Awesome God, please give me God motivation in evangelism, to be joyfully faithful to you in the sharing of the gospel, desiring the leading and prodding of your Holy Spirit that I and those I love might experience your power and come near to You.