What motivates you?

[Andrew]

nate_b,

I think I need to make myself a little clearer.

Firstly, I'm certainly not at the place where I get it right all the time. But there are people who are somewhere there. eg my Pastor. Our church is extremely successful and growing by leaps and bounds, to the grace and glory of God. And how my Pastor has lead the church thru the years is really by the witness of the Spirit -- not spectacular visions and dreams.

Secondly, I'm in no way refering to feelings. Granted, there are people (including me) who have mistaken personal bias/feelings etc for the leading of the Spirit. But we all have to start and learn somewhere. Of cse, I also cannot overstate the importance of knowing the Word too. eg one can't say that one is led by the Spirit to divorce his wife when the Bible is clearly against divorce. Another way to play it safe it to check with your leaders, talk to them about it.

But that said, it is really not that hard and is actually based on a scripture too:

Jas 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

The Bible also talks about the witness of the Holy Spirit in 3 foundational areas, one of which is knowing that you are a child of God.

"feelings" and "desires" arent that 'wrong' either in the NC. Jesus after all, has given us a new heart. He is the one who puts the desires in our hearts, and writes it on our minds. ie we will know it and love to do it.

 

[JesseB.]

Hello,
I am not a Protestant first off. However, I do wish to share what motivates me. All of my life, I have been motivated by the fact that Jesus Christ is walking right beside me. When I was a child, say around 3 years of age, I would come up to my mother and say "Jesus said so and so to me". Now mind you I did not go to Church, was not a Christian, etc. So, with this being said, I developed a special relationship with our LORD Jesus Christ very early in my life.

When I wake up in the morning, I realize daily that the LORD has blessed me with another day. Too often we Christians forget to thank Jesus for the days HE gives us. The main thing that motivates me in my life is ChristianForums.com. Yep, it's true! CF.com has been SUCH a blessing to me within the past 2 months. The website motivates me to pray more, be in touch with nature, Christ, the Universe, & God the Father.

Yours in Prayer,
Jesse B.

 

[Reformationist]

Hello,
I am not a Protestant first off.

You're not baptist?

However, I do wish to share what motivates me. All of my life, I have been motivated by the fact that Jesus Christ is walking right beside me. When I was a child, say around 3 years of age, I would come up to my mother and say "Jesus said so and so to me". Now mind you I did not go to Church, was not a Christian, etc. So, with this being said, I developed a special relationship with our LORD Jesus Christ very early in my life.

When I wake up in the morning, I realize daily that the LORD has blessed me with another day. Too often we Christians forget to thank Jesus for the days HE gives us. The main thing that motivates me in my life is ChristianForums.com. Yep, it's true! CF.com has been SUCH a blessing to me within the past 2 months. The website motivates me to pray more, be in touch with nature, Christ, the Universe, & God the Father.

Yours in Prayer,
Jesse B.

As wonderful as these last few posts have been I'm a little confused because they don't really answer the question I'm asking, at least in a specific way. I'm hearing about the love we have for Jesus and the prompting of the Holy Spirit and, while those things are valuable and, I'm sure, quite real they aren't really addressing the issue that I started this thread about.

I understand that the confusion may be due to the generality of my opening post. If I may, let me be a bit more specific so that we don't turn this into a thread about how much we love Jesus and appreciate what He's done for us, which is something that I'm sure all of us feel.

What I'm curious about will require a bit more indepth analyzation on your part. Think of instances wherein you were faced with making a decision to either obey God or to disobey God.

At that point, when you are faced with making the decision, what crosses your mind? I. E., what thoughts motivate you to choose one way or the other?

For instance, when I am faced with temptation, I desire to please God with my obedience so that desire to please God is what motivates me to obey His Law.

God bless

 

[A. believer]

What I'm curious about will require a bit more indepth analyzation on your part. Think of instances wherein you were faced with making a decision to either obey God or to disobey God.

At that point, when you are faced with making the decision, what crosses your mind? I. E., what thoughts motivate you to choose one way or the other?

For instance, when I am faced with temptation, I desire to please God with my obedience so that desire to please God is what motivates me to obey His Law.

Now that you got this thread into the right forum I'll add my input here--something that I alluded to in one of my posts in your other thread.

As you know, I agree with your major premise as to what motivates us, but I don't consider myself to necessarily have accurate insight as to exactly what motivation is strongest in moving me at any given time. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I really don't believe that I can fully know what the entirety of my motives are when I choose to do what I believe is pleasing to God. I can definitely affirm, though, that I do what I'm most strongly inclined to do, for whatever reason I'm most strongly inclined to do it.

 

[Reformationist]

Now that you got this thread into the right forum I'll add my input here--something that I alluded to in one of my posts in your other thread.

As you know, I agree with your major premise as to what motivates us, but I don't consider myself to necessarily have accurate insight as to exactly what motivation is strongest in moving me at any given time. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I really don't believe that I can fully know what the entirety of my motives are when I choose to do what I believe is pleasing to God. I can definitely affirm, though, that I do what I'm most strongly inclined to do, for whatever reason I'm most strongly inclined to do it.

Good answer.

God bless,
Don