Check point: Motivation

Last night I was considering why I strive to do right; why I serve the Lord, and the Lord showed me that in some areas, yes I am motivated to do right, which is good, but that motivating factor should be better. So I began to consider different things that motivate people, and grouped them into four main categories.

First, the fear of man. Some people do what they do because they are scared of what will happen if they don't--scared of being found out, being caught, being shown to be not genuine. It's not that they really want to do those things, but they base their security on what others think of them, and therefore do these things to make their image look better to others. Just for an example, some people date for this reason. They don't really love the person and enjoy spending time with them, but they are afraid of what people will think if they do not have a boyfriend/girlfriend, so they date out of fear of man.

A second motivation can be love of man. This is closely related to the previous, but slightly different. A person motivated by love of man does things for others to recognize him. Praise, prestige, his image, fame--all these things are what keeps this person going. If you think about it, this could also be labeled as love of self, because why does he love the praise of man so much? Because he loves himself. He is very proud.

The fear of God is a third motivating factor. Now, this is not a bad motivation. The Bible constantly instructs us to have the fear of the Lord in our lives (in Proverbs especially) and in Hebrews says "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God." and "Our God is a consuming fire." Now people can take this too far, and not realize that God is a personal God and wants to get to know each of us personally. You have to balance all of God's attributes to have a proper perspective of Him. A person motivated out of fear of God does what is right because he is scared of punishment from God if he does wrong. Again, this is not horrible, but there is better...

The final and best motivation is love of God. The unsaved can be motivated to do right by all three previous motivations, but this one, they lack. As sinners saved by grace, and made the children of God, this is the highest motivation we can have, and is the one we should seek to have. We should want to do right and serve the Lord out of love, because of all He's done for us. "For the love of Christ constraineth us...that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again." II Corinthians 5:14,15.

Think about different areas of your life. Why do you do what you do?