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| Getting Motivated series |
- What’s Our Motivation?
- What if I’m Not the Best?
- What If I Don’t Succeed? (Fear of Failure)
- How Does God Define Success?
The good news of the gospel is that our righteousness, our position with God, our spot in heaven is not based on what we’ve done. On the cross, Christ gave us all this and more when He gave us His relationship with the father as a free gift (check out our post Peace with God). In many ways, this is what makes Christianity so unique: we don’t get ourselves to heaven. But, if we’re totally honest, this encouraging truth can sometimes make it hard to be motivated.
I mean, if what Isaiah said was really true and “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6), then why go through the trouble of doing what’s right? If we’re already saved and we can’t add to our righteousness, it can be hard to get motivated to endure the self-sacrifice of, for example, living generously.
So, What’s in It for Me?
Now this is one of those thoughts we aren’t supposed to have, one of those questions we aren’t supposed to acknowledge crossed our mind. Maybe you’ve found a better (less selfish, more “Christian”) way to word it, but when I’m struggling to find motivation, somewhere in the back of my mind I’m asking, “Why should I go through all this trouble?”. As terrible as it sounds, I’m kind of asking, “What’s in this for me?”
It can be tempting to feel like this isn’t a Christian thought. We sometimes imagine Christianity is about taking what we want out of the equation. It might surprise you to hear that this idea of “emptying ourselves of desire” is actually Buddhist, not Christian. Consider just this small sample of verses:
Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalms 37:4
May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!
Psalms 20:4
How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:11
Psalms 16:11
Job 36:11
The Problem with “Self-Sacrifice”
Now I’m obviously not encouraging us to just pursue our own selfish desires and indulge our every whim. What I’m saying is that we’ve misunderstood why we don’t. We sometimes understand it as our Christian duty to sacrifice what we want.
The problem with a “self-sacrificing” mindset is that it leads to pride. I know I’ve been guilty of puffing myself up with this, thinking I’m a good person for volunteering my time, for sharing the gospel, for supporting friends/family through a difficult time. We can even get so confused about this that we use it as our motivation. We do good because it makes us feel like a good person, but this motivation is rooted in and serves only to reinforce our pride.
Further, this motivation of a “self-sacrificing” mindset makes us inconsistent. We eventually get tired of always being the “one” who goes out of their way for others. It fails to actually prevent self-indulgence. It’s often this mindset that eventually allows us to justify sin on the grounds that we’ve been doing good and we deserve to do what we want every now and then. Even if what we allow ourselves to enjoy isn’t something sinful, this “self-sacrificing” mindset doesn’t encourage us to enjoy it with a heart of gratitude towards God, giving thanks to Him for the good thing He gave us to enjoy (check out our post How to Be Happy). Instead, we become consumed with our right to enjoy it, with how we’ve earned it, with the idea that we deserve it.
So, if not self-sacrifice, then what is the proper motivation for doing good? When we get tired of doing good, what truth do we focus on to restore our energy and excitement?
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9
Our Reward
When we feel our motivation waning, Paul doesn’t give us a kick in the pants by talking about our Christian duty. It’s almost a little surprising, but he instead reminds us of what’s in it for us. In fact, this answer is throughout Scripture. When Jesus told us to deny ourselves and take up our cross, He went on to tell us why, because that’s how we find our life, that’s how we find what we really want (Matthew 16:24-26). In enduring the cross, Jesus Himself even found motivation in the promise of the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).
In fact, this emphasis on our reward is prevalent throughout the Bible:
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalms 19:11
… And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:6
Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.
2 John 1:8
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
Revelation 3:11
2 Timothy 4:7-8
He Is a Rewarder
God doesn’t tell us to do good because we owe Him for our salvation (it was a gift after all). He encourages us to do good because of the reward that’s waiting for us in doing so. What’s more, this isn’t some trivial perspective that is unnecessary to the core of our Christian life. Amazingly, Hebrews tells us that if we do not believe this then we cannot please God, we cannot draw near to Him:
Hebrews 11:6
God doesn’t tell us to do good because we owe Him for our salvation (it was a gift after all). He encourages us to do good because of the reward that’s waiting for us in doing so.
What does this teach us about our motivations for doing good? It teaches us to accept our weakness and be grateful to God for His strength. We don’t do good because it makes us feel like a good person (pride). We don’t do good because we are obligated to by Christianity (duty/guilt). God knows our frailty; He knows that these will not keep us motivated. When He asks us to do good, He encourages and motivates us with a promise to reward us.
Here’s what this does to our thinking: Doing good is not about our sacrifice, it’s about Christ’s sacrifice and the promise His sacrifice secured for us. We don’t do good because we’re good (altruistic/selfless), we do good because He is good (a rewarder). It’s no longer about us, it’s all because of Him. It moves us from begrudging self-sacrifice to joyful gratitude.
What If I Feel Incapable?
So, we’ve seen here the promise for us when we do what God asks of us. However, sometimes we still struggle to actually do it because we don’t feel capable or qualified. This feeling can even put us in a place where we don’t know what He’s called us to because we don’t see where He’s gifted us. We see others doing amazing things for God and think, “I’ll never be that good”. So, while the promise of a reward and “winning the prize” sound nice, it also can feel unattainable, leaving us unmotivated to even try. There are so many passages and stories in the Bible where God answers this exact question for you. Your qualifications will never hold you back from the prize. Next time we’ll work together to remove any thinking that holds us back from running after the reward He’s promised. Don’t forget to subscribe as we continue our series on getting motivated.