Motivation (Part Two)

Moving to Florida caused me to take a close look at my motives. Literally, driving away from almost everything I had known for the past twenty five years caused me to think about life and my purpose with urgency. God showed me that I was believing a lot of lies about life, purpose, and happiness. He is so generous to show us. I practically kicked, screamed, complained, and worried the whole way here...and put on a smile to cover it up. If only I was focused on God's purposes. His ways are so much higher than ours. He cares about us. I found myself allowing life's circumstances dictate my emotions. I found myself praising God when life was going well and turning into an emotional basket case when life didn't go as I planned easy. 

What were my motives? My motives were rooted in finding happiness, security, and predicability.

If God is making me move far away from all my family and friends, I won't be happy. 
If I can't predict the next few months of my life and have to trust in God's provision, I won't be happy. If I have to live in a house without carpet, a fireplace, an actual yard, and with snakes and gators, I won't be happy. 
If I have to trust Jesus with our finances and not be able to plan how to use "our" money, I won't be happy. 

All the while, my patient Father was waiting for me with open arms, grace, mercy, truth, and unconditional love. God loves us so much that he gave us a whole Bible full of wisdom, life-giving promises, treasured words that lead us to irreplaceable joy, and ultimately to himself. He is the greatest truth and gift of all. There is nothing better.

God's purposes for me have nothing to do with happiness. His purposes are much higher than happiness. He desires for me to know him, to be holy, whole, to seek his presence, to glorify his name, to share about his goodness and wrath, and for his grace to abound in my life. None of this is possible without grace. As long as I'm seeking happiness, I will never be content. I will miss his glory. I will miss purpose, meaning, and joy.

God helped me see my motives. Then, he refined my focus. 

I'm thankful for these words from Dr. Gary Chapman; "God always disciplines us for our ultimate good (and God's glory). His discipline is seldom pleasant and sometimes extremely painful, but His purposes are to guide us back to the pathway of righteousness and peace. These two words, righteousness and peace, must never be separated. Peace which is literally, "to be at one with," is a heartfelt need. Most of us crave "inner peace," the removal of all anxiety. We also desire peace in our human relationships. The reality is, there can be no peace on any level of human existence if we do not live in keeping with the Creator's design. Scripture calls us to live righteously by choosing the right path and obeying the rules of God because we believe they are for our well-being. (I would add, through grace and only Jesus, not the law or our good works) When we walk in righteousness, we experience peace. This is God's desire for us, His discipline is for the purpose of moving us to this higher ideal. Such awareness does not remove the pain of discipline, but it does remind us that the discipline is an act of God's love."

Sometimes my motives are rooted in bad philosophy. 

Life is all about me, me, me. What a huge lie. Yes, life is hard. Yes, it's ok to be sad, mad, and need forgiveness and mercy. Some of the biggest lies come out of my own head, my own thoughts;

If I do good things, God will love me more. 
If I have a bad day, I've failed God and He loves me less.
If I eat a healthy dinner, I'm a good person.
I'm in control, happiness is an achievable goal.
God doesn't love me when my life and circumstances aren't going well. 

Lies. This isn't the Gospel.

God's word helps us renew our mind and receive truth. Lord, help me take every thought captive to your truth! 

Psalm 37:4

I used to think that this verse was talking about my happiness. It's so easy to be trapped in a lie and not even know it. This verse isn't about following a rule and getting what we want. My greatest desire is Jesus. We get Jesus!

Before we started trying to have children, Blake was the wide-eyed grinning one about the whole idea. I had no idea what amazing little gift was in store. I wanted to eventually start a family but I explained to Blake that I didn't want to have children yet because then, the only "milestone" in life was grandchildren. I felt like after having children, I'd have experienced all life has to offer. What a lie! Where was I getting this stuff in my head, haha? Could I have been any more self-centered?

Yes, mister Jude and this precious life on the way are enormous blessings but they aren't my reason for living. Jesus is my reason. I'm not promised years and years with our son, daughter, my husband, or even my own life. I am promised Jesus. 

I'm so thankful that he leads us in paths of righteousness all for his name's sake. He restores my soul!

Other than happiness, I am easily motivated by guilt. 

Gloria Furman wonderfully explains..."Guilt is a terrible motivator, guilt never strengthened anyone's heart. In Christ alone we can be certain a full forgiveness today I'm certain of more grace tomorrow. The indignant, self-righteous limit, " I know better than this; how could I have been so foolish" is a poor conduit of grace in our lives and offers us nothing for tomorrow but compounded guilt. But the soul freeing news of the Gospel that says Jesus loved us perfectly on the cross and redeems our failures, this news is of another kind. This is very good news. Guilt cannot crush us because Christ was crushed on the cross in our stead. Jesus is our consistency; he felt God's highest expectations of perfection and in him we'll find the promises of God find there yes and him! We find mercy in our time of need, which is always!" 

Can I get an AMEN? Haha! 

God wants me to be motivated by His purposes for my life.

Purpose: The greek word for purpose is "boule" which means will, project, intention, as the result of reflections, it denotes deliberation and reflection.

Sometimes it's not easy being a stay-at-home mom. Not to mention, I take care of multiple children. I have to wake up each day ready to tackle the stinky diapers, messes, temper tantrums, accidents, and sacrifice "my time" to keep these boys busy. Most days, I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the whole world to be home with our Jude. I prayed a lot about staying home. Sure, I could go to work and have great purpose as a working mother. However, I asked God specifically to show me if I needed to stay home, and He did. This is where I'm supposed to be. 

I believe that when we obey the Lord, peace abounds. Maybe not at first, but eventually. We all have a calling on our life. It's a joy to wake up and be reminded that this is where God wants me today. I have more opportunities to whip up yummy meals for those in need, be a Desire Church taxi, listen to my neighbors, listen to my husband, support my husband, to study God's word, to make mistakes, and lots of sweets!

Live as You Are Called!

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brothers,in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

1 Corinthians 7:22-24

He always has a plan for us! 

Everything I have comes from my loving Father! EVERYTHING. He tenderly reminded me of this as we moved here with our belongings in storage for months and hardly any money at all. We received more than we could ever imagine from Jude's baby showers. We received every penny we needed to make a living down here. God provided Blake with work. Sometimes we forget that we aren't in control of our money. I pray that I can bless the Lord with all he has given us! This is his house, his money, his body (pushing away the Kit Kat wrapper next to me), his child, his table, life lent to me for a short while.

God thinks about us (Psalm 139) and has an intimate plan and purpose for our life! Acts 17:26 explains how God ordained "the times set for them and the exact places they should live!" Lord, help us fight against the stronghold of insignificance. We have great significance and worth in Christ! Surely, if Christ has a plan for us then so does this world and Satan. We have to pick up our armor and fight to clear a path for His name's sake. We are sons and daughters of a great God who ordains the universe! He cares deeply about our steps.  

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.-Hebrews 13:15-16

God desires for us to be motivated by his finished work on the cross.

There is no condemnation for those of us in Christ Jesus! Mark 16:19 tells us that Jesus was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. The work is finished. We have been forgiven. I can face each day and the stinky diapers knowing that I will mess up and God's grace will overflow! Jude continually disobeys me and yet, my love for him doesn't change. How much more does our Father love us? If we listen closely, God is whispering songs of grace to us each moment of our life.

Let us be motivated by His big, big love and real grace.