MOTIVATED SPIRITUALITY

What motivates people to behave the way they do? Why do we sometimes avoid evil and at other times choose it? Or from another perspective, why do we do the right thing on some occasions and fail to do it on others?

People are motivated to satisfy their needs for

Security Significance Fulfillment

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but they turn to the wrong places to have their needs met. This chapter will present the option of looking to Christ rather than the world to meet our needs. Our task is to be more motivated by the things God declares to be important than by the things the world says are important.

Because believers have a new nature and are indwelled by the Spirit of God, they have more options than do unbelievers.

They can choose to walk by the Spirit and do things that are pleasing to God, whereas those who do not know Christ cannot please God, since even their good deeds are tainted by the fallen nature.

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6). “They turn, but not upward, they are like a deceitful bow” (Hosea 7:16). “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21–23).

VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL MOTIVATORS

The Bible tells us that the problem with the human condition is internal and that the only solution is a changed heart. The transformation available through the new birth in Christ is wrought from the inside out, so that in Christ we become new creatures. Nevertheless, while we are in this body and in this world, believers are susceptible to the same influences that exert a pull on unbelievers.

These are “horizontal” motivators, since they are related to the short-term dynamics of the visible and the now.

Worldly or temporal motivators

Fear of loss

Guilt

Pride

Hope of personal gain

Reputation

Prestige

Pleasure

These are “horizontal” motivators, since they are related to the short-term dynamics of the visible and the now.

Biblical motivators

are more “vertical,” since they relate to the long-term dynamics of the invisible and the not yet. It is not surprising, then, that believers find it easier to be prompted by the former than by the latter. Even when our actions are based upon thinking rather than emotions, it is natural for our thinking to be shaped by a temporal and human perspective.

PRESENT YOURSELF TO HIM AND RENEW YOUR MINDS

Romans 12:1 NKJV

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:2 NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It is only as we yield ourselves to the lordship of Christ and renew our minds with spiritual truth that our thought life will be shaped by an eternal and godly perspective.

No other options

John 6:66–69 NKJV

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

When we come to Christ, we effectively admit the inadequacy of every other approach to life. Although this is a negative motivator, it can have real power in times of doubt and pain.

Fear

Luke 12:4–5 NKJV

“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

2 Corinthians 5:10–11 NKJV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

1 Corinthians 9:16 NKJV

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!

Deuteronomy 5:29 NKJV

Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

This can be both negative (fear of consequences) and positive (fear of God).

Love and gratitude

This is a frequently cited positive motivator.

1 John 4:8–10 NKJV

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:19 NKJV

We love Him because He first loved us.

John 15:9–10 NKJV

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

Rewards

Scripture talks much more about rewards as incentives for faithfulness and obedience than we might have supposed.

Luke 12:47–48 NKJV

And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Matthew 11:21–24 NKJV

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

Our identity in Christ

This should have profound implications for our behavior.

Christians described as believers

Acts 2:44 NKJV

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,

See also Ac 4:32; 5:12; Gal 6:10; Jas 2:1; 1Pe 2:17

Christians described as brothers

Hebrews 2:11 NKJV

For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

See also Ac 15:3; Col 1:2; 2Th 2:13; Rev 19:10

Christians described as disciples

Matthew 28:19 NKJV

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

See also Ac 6:1,7; 13:52; 14:22

Christians described as Children of God

1 John 3:1 NKJV

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

See also Jn 1:12; Ro 8:16,21; Gal 3:26-4:7

Christians described as heirs of God

Galatians 4:7 NKJV

Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Christians described as members of God’s household Eph 2:19 See also 1Ti 3:15

Christians described as the people of God 1Pe 2:10 See also Eph 2:19; Col 3:12; Rev 21:3

Christians described as saints

Ro 1:7 See also Ro 15:25; 1Co 6:2; 2Co 1:1; 13:13; Eph 1:15,18; 1Ti 5:10; Jude 3

Purpose and hope.

Heb 6.11-20

It is important for us to cultivate a biblical purpose for living and a hope that is founded on the character of God.

Rom 5.2-5

Laying hold of a sense of purpose can be a significant source of motivation, but the problem is that even as believers, we are more inclined to pursue temporal rather than biblical purposes. In fact, most people fail to wrestle with the issue of purpose; without reasoned purposes to guide them, they base their decisions instead on activities and objectives that have become ends in themselves.

Rom 8.18

Rom 8.24-25

1 Cor 15.58

Longing for God.

Psalm 42.1-2

The vision of God has been a recurring theme in devotional literature, although it is not as common in the Christian literature of our time.

Psalm 63.1

Ps 27.4

Psalm 84.4

Psalm 84.10