To Be Motivated by God is to Imitate God

I was struck again this week by Paul's instruction to the Ephesians--"Be imitators of God..."  But what seized me all the more this round was how the imitation should work itself out.  The aspect of God's character he immediately highlighted was love.  This is the first item he has in mind that we should imitate.  But this is no easy, cushy, cotton candy or erotic kind of love.  What we are called to imitate is a love that does not consider self-exaltation, self-preservation, or worth of the recipient.  A little whiteboarding leads us quickly to that conclusion.  How does your love for others need reoriented today?

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The phrase, "God Motivation" proposes the idea that God Himself ought to be the ultimate reason for every activity of any disciple.  An unpacking of this, followed by 100 devotionals from the Scriptures, serves to develop an understanding of what it means to do all because of One.

Conversational Mood Swings

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:1-2).  Jesus sounds at first like the ultimate killjoy in this account.  Imagine walking with some friends this [oh-please, please, please-come-quickly] spring, looking up, and mentioning how beautiful the blue sky looked only to have have somebody say, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood (Joel 2:31).  That would be a bit of a conversation stopper.  With all social niceties aside, Jesus went on to tell them about the coming end of the world as humanity knows it.  He had a short three years to build into His disciples the type of perspective that would launch them into a hot passion for God's glory and gospel--a passion that would lead to their persecution, martyrdom, and establishing of the global church.  He clued them in to the seriousness of troubles ahead by informing them that only those who endured to the end would be saved (V. 13).  The fact of life for most of us today is that we've got it pretty good--lots of creature comforts, a huge network of acceptance of our Christian values, and (as far as we can tell) a hopeful road ahead.  To be sure, these are gifts, and we should be thankful for them.  For a break in the middle of a couple hours of reading in my riveting Hebrew grammar text last night, Gen and I streamed an episode of "Duck Dynasty."  "I'm really enjoying this new TV," I said.  It was a nice 22 minutes of refreshment, and ended with a typical Robertson family prayer before a meal...good stuff.  But I was reminded this morning that I need to experience that enjoyment while also hearing Jesus's interrupting words so that I long for ultimate refreshment in Him at the willing expense of countless temporary ones.  It was a nudge I needed and one that hopefully strengthens you too. 

Stamped

Jesus to His disciples: 
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

The command for disciples to love one another is not an abstract idea that we need to figure out how to do.  It is quite to the contrary.  Jesus spent His ministry showing love to His disciples, discipling them in love.  They were to love one another in the ways that He had loved them.  This fully formed love was one that always told the truth, that repeatedly served, that continuously prayed, that regularly corrected, and that diligently protected.  And so, in the ways that Jesus loved His disciples, all brothers and sisters following Him are commanded to model their lives after His love: as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  The result would be that others would see the stamp of Jesus on our lives and identify us with Him.  And so, to the Originator of the love we show goes the ultimate attention and honor.  For Christ's sake, we joyfully love!

Prayer Chair

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
(Matthew 6:5-15)

Are you a good pray-er?  You know what I'm talking about.  When you pray in front of a group, do people reflect on those words and think, "Wow, she's got the prayin' skills!"?  Here's a better question: Do you ever want them to think those things?  Let's be honest; whether we're a bit self-conscious praying in front of others or have it down to a beautiful science, we sometimes lose track of Who it is that we're to be engaging.

First, that's why Jesus says to pray in a quiet little room--a place where only God is and nobody else...a place where we can grab a prayer chair and connect with the King.  It's not that He's against praying in groups (He did that with His disciples before meals and the disciples gathered together to do it after He ascended).  He's simply emphasizing that prayer isn't for show.  Everything that He says in this passage reinforces that fact...

Second, He tells His listeners that it's right to keep in mind the big/main things as we pray.  "God is great.  This is His world.  He's our Provider.  We need His forgiveness and protection.  We need to forgive."  There are other things, given our life situation and circumstances, that are going to fit into that grid as we pray, but those rocks of truth about God's nature and our need are what it should all come back to.  We don't need to wander or aimlessly drift in our prayers when we have anchors in place.

Third, Jesus drew out a certain portion of His example prayer that He knew we needed to give special attention to.  Simply because we get away to pray in a quiet place for that "just God and me" time doesn't mean we're not to have on our minds how we're doing in community life.  Christ knows the messiness of relationships and comes back to that component of His prayer: "You've got to be a forgiver!"  Our nearness to God is rooted in forgiveness and so is our fellowship with our fellow man.  We've got to remember that we will never have to forgive someone to anywhere near the extent that God has forgiven us.  It's as if Jesus was saying, "If you little sinner can't forgive that other little sinner, you can't begin to grasp (or have!) the forgiveness God offers you."  That's not to belittle anyone's pain over what's been done to them, but the statement should magnify the power of God's work in ripping out our utterly dead hearts that were carrying us to eternal destruction and replacing them with pure, life-carrying ones--that's what His forgiveness does.

Hypocrisy.  That's what Jesus warned against at the beginning of this miniature discourse and that's essentially how He ends it.  The call is toward authenticity.  If we're God motivated in our prayers and our personal relationships, that's what comes.  And so these too are among the words that Jesus says we're to build our lives on so that we're ready to stand strong in Him when the storm hits.

Beware of Dog

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
(Matthew 6:1-4)

Walking up and down the alley behind our house, you'll see a "Beware" sign or two.  We catch a glimpse of that word in such a context, take note of the dog running up to the fence the sign is posted on, and gladly stand back.  You wouldn't think of sticking your hand across the line because it could mean that you'd get pulled all the way in, or at least end up with a torn up mitt.  Well, we would do alright to adhere to the same word in the same way as we look at the Scriptures.  Jesus told His listeners to beware of the temptation to live uprightly in order to be held up high by others.  In fact, if we really thought about what He was saying, we would be way more concerned about taking to heart this instruction to "beware" than we would about putting our hand within reach of an angry dog--sounds crazy, but I'm being serious.

Sometimes Christians are scared to talk about working for rewards.  We like to say, "No, no, I do what God says simply because He says it."  Well, that's fine, but if that's all there is to it, why would Jesus give a warning against "holy showmanship" wherein He explains the consequence of such to be a lost heavenly reward?  He said it because we should be thrilled over getting to hear God say one day, "I saw what nobody else saw back then, and I'm so happy to grant this extra blessing to you right now because of it."  Trust me, He's not going to hand us "Good Job, Sport!" stickers at those moments.  Losing what will be a rich reward and replacing it instead with a self-exalting attitude that reminds heaven and earth of why Jesus needed to spill out His blood...that should simply kill us!

I tell ya, it's tough; I get that.  I'm rotten at living in such a way that shows all I want is God and what He wants to give.  Heaven seems far away and pats on the back are so very nice and so very right now.  But living for those is something that we should beware of.  They will never satisfy.  They will never come in all the right forms.  They are not what our hearts long for.  And when we start to find out just how true that is, unless we wake up, we're going to step further and further away from the God motivated life and into the land of empty pleasures and pursuits.  You better believe we ought to "beware of practicing [our] righteousness before other people to be seen by them. "  It's a double-loss if we don't--loss of heavenly reward and an eventual loss of our senses altogether.

Go bless the socks off of somebody today.  But be secretive...be stealthy...and anticipate amazing things one day from the hand of the One you live for.  Do you think He won't know how to give your eternal new body and soul the kind of rewards that make your heart sing and still result in exalting praise of His name forever?  Beware...and be happy.