MOTIVATION

Motivation is something within us that causes us to some action. It is an intangible force which causes us to move or keeps us from moving. Motivation is not something we can see or touch: it is unmoved by any of the senses. It goes much deeper. It can be influenced by others and by circumstances. In its proper position, motivation can be that stimulus which leads a person to do the mundane or to do the extraordinary. In light of our own egos, however, it is also a tool which we try to use to influence others to agree with our thinking or action. It is vital that we discern that place within us that controls our motivation.

The first step is to admit that our motivations are often born out of our own desires to control a certain person or situation. This has great potential to cause harm if we allow the root of our motivation to come from personal prejudices or misunderstandings. We are prone to lock in on a certain entity because our emotions have been aroused. We allow people and circumstances to affect our personal motivation and that part in our seemingly innermost being which gives permission for our motives to be directed--or misdirected! I think it is time for believers to realize that personal desires and understandings have been consciously or unconsciously turned over to whatever person or situation appears to be in control at any given time. We need to become attentive to what outside forces are reigning over our lives! When something reigns in any part of our existence then, by definition, it has supreme authority.

The topic of motivation seems an interesting one. It has definitely become a marketable commodity. Some people want to "sell" it and others want to "purchase" it as they would purchase a cup of coffee! Have you ever wondered what motivates the motivators? Give yourself a few minutes to dwell on your answer. It might surprise you! If time is taken to look at the subject of motivation objectively we can see very clearly that many situations and people want us to have motivation from their particular vantage point. We are beset from every direction: relatives, family, politics, society, religion...you name it! Large corporations employ lecturers and teachers to "light a fire" under their employees...With what end in sight?

Employers in every field of endeavor have one goal in mind...more production, which they believe will result in more money! Have you ever tried to please someone only to realize that no matter how hard you perform you cannot produce to their desired standard? One problem with that is that everyone has a different standard for different things, not to mention the standard might change with a whim! Why do we even desire to be motivated? What is that part in us as human beings that directs our motivation? The answer to the first question is very basic. We desire to please. It doesn't matter who or what is involved. We only desire to please---to be accepted, to have our efforts recognized. Maybe we will even be rewarded if we can point our motivation in the correct direction.

The problem here is that the "correct direction" changes with each person and each circumstance. The answer to the second question becomes a bit more complicated. It would seem by observance that the part in our humanness which we turn over to starting or stopping our motivation, is nothing more than our own soul (our mind, will and emotions). We grant our soul carte blanche to rule from what we perceive to be our innermost being and make decisions for us that are based on no more than an impulse of emotion or intellect or a stubborn will. We give our soul full discretionary power, without understanding that the soul was never predestined to be in charge. Our data base has had incorrect information programmed into it. We are operating on misinformation. When we make ourselves the center of all decisions, we are bound to fail. When the failure comes, we begin berating ourselves and, if the circumstances were serious enough, we are apt to become discouraged or depressed. If we continue in the same pattern for our motivation, repeated failure is almost assured. What we fail to realize is that our spirit is actually our innermost being. God has deemed it so. Why would He assign man's spirit to be the route for His personal communication? The reason is very clear---God is Spirit and He will only use our spirit for all communion with Himself. To do it any other way would denote a much lesser god--a god of this world who controls and is controlled by the slightest glimmer of emotions, ego or anything else that happens to pop up! God's creation has allowed the ascension of the soul man to engulf any participation of our spirit with His Spirit. When our soul man reigns then God does not reign. It is very basic but it can be difficult to comprehend or express. When God created mankind, He breathed life--HIS life---into His created being. He desires that our spirit be as close with (and in) His Spirit as the very breath we breathe. Jesus breathed on the disciples before He ascended to His Father. For us to desire less seems an insult to the Great I AM! Do we really want to be found in a position of insulting the God of the universe? Of course we do not! So wherein lies the solution?

The question we were working on was, "What is that part in human beings that directs our motivation?" Would that we could all answer "the spirit of man in obedience to the Spirit of God"! It might be beneficial if we take a look at the means and see if it justifies the end result. Who are we trying to please? Why are we trying to please them? How far will we go to please those whom we deem important and at what cost to everything that we cherish? Do we consider it more important or beneficial to please man than to please Almighty God? At best our actions certainly point in the direction of misplaced loyalties. We ought to take a look with our spirit man at all the many sources that try to dominate our motivation. After we have discovered what those are, we need to observe the method through which each one presents itself. People are no longer interested in helping one another find that motivating factor in order to produce something which lines up with the Kingdom of God. The motivation factor has become important only to the degree that their self interest is effected. We are no longer able to concentrate on building character. That has been forfeited within us as we are pulled along by the momentum of the motivational "experts". It is a train that is going down the track and picking up speed at an alarming rate. It is sucking us in like a vacuum. Sadly, we see the monster only after we have capitulated. Only after this poison has engulfed us do we grant ourselves the luxury of acknowledging that this monster even exists. We need to dissect ourselves in the light of His light. Obviously, it is best if this can be done before permanent damage has been done. But before or after, we need to deal with the monster within, which has allowed this control over us without any perimeters. We have given it reign over all. Life is so precious and we are derelict in our responsibility of caring for it. There are no easy solutions that we can attempt. Only in getting with the Holy Spirit in deliberate and serious quality time will we even begin to have our picture of what is going on in us and around us. Our motivation is hid in the thing or person that moves us most. It penetrates the thought process and answers questions we don't even know to ask! The reason for this is that we grant control to our emotions. If our motivations are tied up with our emotions, then our will and our intellect become slaves to every whim or scheme or flight of thought that life hurls our way. Our Father never meant for His children to become enslaved to anything or anyone--not even to Himself----especially Himself!! He wants us to come to Him, yield to Him, desire Him out of our love for Him and a longing for that part of ourselves that is HIM! In so doing, we become loving, volunteer "love-slaves" before our Father. In order to be the vessels He desires, we need to realize that we have habits that have become lifestyles. Those habits are so strong and so automatic that we have given them the status of lifestyle. Something so simple can become the source of a major confrontation with those around us. For example: a certain day of the week works best for our grocery shopping. Should anything or anyone cause that schedule to be altered we become irate because we had to change our schedule. The children's activities are time consuming but we have made ourselves available for them. Let someone change the children's schedule and we're off again! We go to church on Sundays but when we're getting ready, we are angry because we have to go to church! Wherein lies our motivation for going to church, for being with our children in their activities or for choosing to shop? We can be so put out with other people that we become short-tempered and unloving with those we actually care about the most! We have become slaves to a monster within that we aren't even aware exists. That is the most frightening part.

When we allow ourselves to roll along and not even consider the possibility that some force other than God is actually controlling us, we have surrendered the position of God's Spirit in our spirit, placing whatever comes along on our personal throne. God will not share His sovereignty with anything or anyone else. Either He reigns supreme or His doesn't reign at all. We can either give up ground to satan or give God His rightful place---which includes control of the root of our motivations. God's grace stands ever present would we but reach out to the redeemer of our soul and spirit. His grace abounds where we know not--even to the dividing of our soul and spirit. (Hebrews 4:12) He truly is standing at the door knocking. (Revelation 3:20) Will we open ourselves to Him? Or will we choose to wound His heart? The choice is ours!