Motivation

How do we keep God’s promise?  In the Book of Genesis when God first appears to Abram, God tells him that “He will also be with him and his descendants” That is a promise that has been passed down from generation to generation to the present day. (Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18)

However, many times that promise goes unheeded by us. Because of the many “things” we have, we do not feel the need for God’s presence in our lives. As an example, only 32% of us regularly worship at a church and only 18-20% of us attend a worship service on any given Sunday. Meanwhile over 65% of us admit to being part of some type of organized religion and 92% say that they believe in God. The difference between the 92% and the 18-20% is degree of motivation. 

Fulfilling the promise our stewardship is not an easy challenge to accept. It is also a reminder that, with God's gift of free will, we have a choice each day whether to make the time, and the effort, to keep our promise; and that stewardship is a path toward keeping our end of our covenant with God. Fulfilling the promise refers back to a promise that most of us had made on our behalf when we were baptized.

At baptism, we (or our sponsors) entered into a solemn covenant with God that set the benchmark for all that we are, and all that we do as God's children in Christ. While it would be impossible for most of us to recall those original promises, whenever we attend a baptism we get the chance to hear them again.

Every January 1st – mid February, exercise places such as the Y or your local gym get very busy as folks make a decision to change their lifestyle. However by mid February or sooner, the urgency of that lifestyle change diminishes to the point of not showing up as excuses for not exercises mount. Soon you will only show up, if there is no reason not to as well as to satisfy your inner voice saying you should exercise.

Let’s say, you decide you want to read a section of the Bible each morning. You look at your schedule and you decide to do this just after you wake up. That way, nothing else can get in the way of you keeping the discipline. Granted it is the first thing you do, but not really, because you are already sleeping. So one day, you sleep to late, then you must make a decision, “do I continue to be late for other activities and do my bible reading, or skip my bible reading and be on time for the rest of my schedule?’ Since no one else is depending upon you for this activity, you figure you can skip it just this once….and you can probably figure out the rest of the story

What causes change in your life, and how do you go about doing it? Where is God in your life? Is your relationship with God based on the expectations of others, or is it one of your own making? Are you happy with your relationship or would you like to see a different one in your future

.For this first step, motivation is a necessary step to ensure that our change takes place. There are two effective ways of being motivated to make change. The first one is what I call “a life changing event” This usually occurs when you have encountered a crisis in your life, or you have a “road to Damascus” revelation similar to St. Paul. These events are usually so scary, that motivation begins embedded in our DNA and becomes part of our daily life. Some denominations call this “being saved”. Certain folks do start their relationship with God in this manner, but many of us do not, and we wait for this type of event to occur in our lives, but it may never happen.

The second and more likely scenario, is as we go forward on our own spiritual journey we gradually grow closer to God and we start to participate at greater level with our time, over a longer stretch. This begins with us opening up ourselves to God and letting God lead us forward.

The I Wanna” Factor

The next part of this examination requires you to look very honestly at what you like to do and what you do not like to do. I recommend thinking back to your childhood. Many decisions you make now on whether your want or do not want to do, are based on other’s expectations.

But in dealing with your relationship with God, you need to be very honest. Think back to your childhood. When you mother asked you to do something, you answer would either be “I don’t wanna do that” or “I wanna do that”. These reactions come from you in a life that was very “me oriented”

As you became older, you learned that despite not wanting to do something, you did it because of unpleasant consequences or being afraid of not fitting in.

God does not care about these consequences. And it is very important to have that honesty with God in making a decision on moving forward on your own spiritual journey.

As you move forward with your chosen activities periodically reexamine them on your “I wanna” scale. If you are feeling better about them, then continue, if you are seeing no result or the place on the scale worsens, then get out. Do not feel bad about your decision as everyone has different gifts and attitudes and being involved with one that is not one of your gifts is not a reason to feel bad.