MOTIVATION

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life – John 6:63

Glory to the Most High God for seeing us through the first two months of 2018, the Year of His Word, Spirit, and Life! His Key Word for this new month is MOTIVATION. It’s our March of Motivation. The variety of Light that was released into our lives in February will continue to motivate us to action, advancement, achievement, accomplishment, and progress. The foretaste of Motivation came through His Instructions for us to “Awake, Arise, and Shine”! Motivation is the process of moving one toward an action or being caused to act in a certain way; it changes, provokes or impels our very being. However, due to the errors of many contemporary “Motivational Speakers”, some Christians assume that Motivation is unbiblical. This is far from being true. God speaks to encourage, enliven, inspire, and motivate us to align with His Will. God is the Master Motivator!

The Bible is full of, and has much to say about Motivation. We therefore need to understand what Motivation is, what it means to motivate or be motivated, who a Motivator is, and the reality of God as Master Motivator. Thereafter, we’ll meditate on one Word of Motivation each day for the remainder of the month. Ideally, motivation carries the positive connotation of encouragement, enhancement, enablement, enrichment or empowerment; whereas anything opposite would be considered as De-motivation. The believer’s motivation is typically different from that of unbelievers. The Christian’s sense of motivation derives from God, not from the things of the world: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col.3:1-2).

David spoke of his motivation: “I delight to do Your will, O my God; and Your law is within my heart” (Psa.40:8). The world is motivated by self and self-aggrandizement, the egocentric, “self-centric”, “it’s all-about-me syndrome”; typified by self-determination, self-obsession and self-worship. On the other hand, the Lord teaches as follows: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt.23:11-12; Lk 9:48).  As followers of Christ, we are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Mt.16:24). He set the example for our motivation in life: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (Jh.4:34). He was concerned with pleasing and obeying His Father; and we should be motivated by that same concern to do the Father’s will.

Our obedience is an indication of our motivation, that we are truly His: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (Jh.14:15). Paul was also motivated by eternal values, rather than by money, fame or competition. The believer’s motivation stems from a yearning to have peace with God (Rom.5:1; Phil.4:7), to have access into His grace (Rom.5:2), and to please Him always (Heb.11:6). Our highest motivation is to be in His Presence and be soaked in His Glory (Psa.27:4; Jh.17:24). As you move into the month, you’ll need to ask: Am I truly awake? Have I actually arisen? To what degree am I shining? Am I doing anything worthwhile or simply staying stagnant? What is driving me to do what I am doing? What is hindering me from doing what I ought to be doing? How am I doing what I ought to do? How much progress am I making? What can I do differently?