A Motivational Shift

God desires the absolute best for His Children. If you’re a parent, this is very easy to understand, because our children tug at our heartstrings like nothing else. We want them to be happy, and we’ll do just about anything to make this a reality. The love that our Heavenly Father gives us infinitely exceeds that of a biological parent’s love and care. It may be hard for some people to believe this, but it is true. John 3:16(NLT) tells us, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” The amazing reality that God gave his only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins is the evidence of His love. There’s no other love that compares to it, and there’s no other sacrifice that will ever compare to what the Father risked in order to save us.

Ephesians 5:1-2 The Message (MSG) tells us, “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” God has a plan for our lives, and it is that we learn to love like Him. A lot of us are not aiming this high. We are motivated by many things in life. Some of us are chiefly motivated by our professions and careers, others by artistry and creativity. For many of us family is the central focus of our existences. All of these are wonderful, but nothing can take the place of serving God, and doing it with a heart that pleases Him.

One of the things that we are required to do as Christians is to search our hearts and examine exactly what our motivations are from day to day, because this matters to our Heavenly Father. Through the Apostle Paul, God challenges us in 2Corinthians 13:5 (NIV) to “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” The evidence of our faith is reflected in our commitment to Christ, and how we live this out daily through our conversations, attitudes, deeds, confessions, and motivations.

Ephesians 3:17(NLT) tells us that God desires that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, so that we are rooted and grounded in love. Our hearts can carry a rich treasury. We produce good things from it when our roots grow down into the Lord. Only then will we have the spiritual strength and stamina to be a foundation for all those we love and support. When our motivation is to grow in Christ and love like him, we are not swayed by what we receive, or moved by the disappointment of not receiving enough. A shift to go higher in him is where we have to continually aim our sights, because that is the glue that will forever and beautifully hold our lives together.

Overcoming Domestic Violence

Overcoming domestic violence and abuse through Jesus Christ!