What Motivates You?

We all have things that we enjoy doing, and other things that we don’t enjoy. We are all born with a natural inclination toward some things, we are taught to enjoy others, and sometimes we have personal reasons for enjoying what we do. Regardless, you and I each have a motivation for everything that we do. We don't do anything for no reason (while sometimes our motives seem a little vague).

For example, I enjoy writing. A couple different things motivate me to write, including a desire to honor God, a desire to create something beautiful, a desire to share something I've learned, and a need to sort my thoughts. These are all good reasons to write, and I'm not ashamed to tell others about them. However, if my motivation to share my thoughts involved wanting to provoke someone to jealousy or anger, I would need to re-evaluate my thoughts. The quality of our motives will affect the quality of our actions.

As a Christian, I believe that all my actions need to glorify God in some way. 1 Corinthians 10:31 is an important verse to me. It says;

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

I obviously fail again and again, but that doesn't mean that I should give up. I find the most joy when I do things that align with scripture's message. Please note that there is a difference between having joy and having pleasure. Pleasure is the wrong thing to seek and will only result in pain. The more I strive to be motivated by Christ, the more I have joy in the situations I'm in (note that following Christ does not grant more enjoyable situations, but rather a spirit of joy).

I want you to think about the last movie you watched for a minute. Think about a couple of things.

1. Would you be ashamed to tell anyone about having watched it?

2. What was your motivation for watching the movie?

3. Would you be okay with people knowing that motivation?

4. If you're a Christian, did the movie bring glory to God?

Personally, the last movie I watched was Fireproof by the Kendrick brothers and Sherwood Pictures. The movie details a young couples marriage struggles and how they repair their marriage through some godly counseling. My motivation for watching it was because I wanted to enjoy a movie that didn't displease God. It brought glory to God, in that He was the solution to the couple's marriage issues.

If the last movie you watched was done so because of an ungodly motivation, consider looking for a movie that won't bring any shame.

While everything we do has a specific reason for it, we don’t always keep track of those motives. Think of the last movie you watched. Now, you probably watched that movie because you wanted to be entertained. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. Whether the movie made you laugh or cry, something motivated you to choose the movie that you did. Was it a desire to see action? romance? gore? I think if we really took a closer look at our motives, we might be slightly disturbed by what we found. We need to take a moment to evaluate whether our motives are God-honoring or not. There is nothing inherently wrong with reading, watching, or listening to something that isn’t preaching a sermon, but is there a desire for something that is ungodly? You and I need to continually align our desires so that they honor God. If we profess to love Him, then we need to do things that would please Him, and not just ourselves.

I encourage you to take a moment today and evaluate a couple of your actions, then determine whether or not you should continue to do them. When you're finished reading, take a moment to think of something that you can do either now or later that has pure motivations.