Motivation Determination

This post from Lindsey Nobles about managing others impressions of ourselves reminded me of a topic that I have thought about and talked about before.

If you’ve spent any amount of time in a church, especially one where you know most of the people in attendance, you’ve probably witnessed a particular phenomenon at least once. A person who seems to be a model Christian ends up out of church (the reason is really not important) and immediately their life and behavior takes a 180 degree turn.  I’m not talking about the marginal, struggling type who always seems to messing up but is trying to hang in there. I’m talking about the type that has the walk, talk and look; they attend every service, volunteer, always seem to be in prayer or discussing spiritual things. But once they have separated themselves from the church, all of that completely changes.

It’s always confused me when someone who seemed to have a desire to conduct themselves according to a set of standards would lose that desire entirely almost overnight.

But thinking back in my own life, I realized something about myself. I was at times conducting myself a certain way mostly because it was expected of me by others in the church. Presenting myself in that way seemed to gain their respect and acceptance, and was meant to give them the impression that I was close to God. I was, in effect, reacting to the social pressure of the environment and molding my actions to fit in as best I could.

I can see how, once outside of the source of the social pressure, the motivation to do good would be far less, because the acceptance of those people was no longer the reward. The proper motivation is crucial, and that motivation must come from our hearts.

The motivation to do good and to live righteously should come from our love for God, and our gratitude for the salvation that he has given us. If you truly love God as Jesus said you should, with your heart, soul, mind and strength, then naturally your actions would reflect that love.

Living to receive the praise, respect and acceptance of others only benefits our own pride. Jesus chided the religious of the day for making spectacles of themselves with their loud pretentious public prayers, the rituals demanded by their precepts, and religious garb. Jesus made it very clear that the only reward in such things was that they received recognition from others. Jesus taught that if you do your good deeds in secret, God will reward you openly.

Our pride forces us to try to hide the fact that we are all broken, faulty people. Burying our faults and issues won’t make them go away. When we live to receive the acceptance of others, we are not able to honest about the things that we struggle with, and we won’t deal with those issues. Refusing to deal with our issues because we are pretending they don’t exist only sets us up to fail, and fail miserably.

The ability to do good and live righteously comes as we are empowered by the Spirit. The fear of what others think of us can be a powerful motivator, but seeking to impress others leaves us to operate out of our own strength. Truly living for God allows us to recognize our dependence on him, and gives Him the opportunity to provide the strength that we need by his grace.

If our pride is our motivator, we put ourselves at odds with God. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, and that grace is critical for us to have the strength to carry on in spite of our weaknesses.

We should all be certain that we have the right motivations.