Basic HTML Version
When it comes to your
spiritual life, have you ever really
stopped to consider why you do
the things that you do? I think
most of us will agree that church
attendance, prayer, Bible reading,
giving, serving, and striving to
keep ourselves from sin are all
good things. However, I submit to
you that our self-fueled obedience
can sometimes actually be the
very thing that keeps us from true
communion with God.
Fear of punishment
You see, at least inmy life, I’ve
found that I obey God for one of
three reasons. One, I obey him
because I am afraid that he will
punish me if I disobey him. Even
though I may have already
committed a particular sin in my
heart, I refrain from carrying out
the physical act because I fear that
God will cause something terrible
to happen inmy life if I were to do
it. The problem with this logic is
that Jesus says if I’ve done
something in my heart, it’s the
same as actually carrying out the
act itself (see Matthew 5:21-30).
To take things a step further, 1
John 1:18 says, “Such love has no
fear, because perfect love expels all
fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of
punishment, and this shows that
we have not fully experienced his
perfect love.” Did you catch that?
It says that if I am afraid of
punishment from God, that
means I don’t fully understand his
love for me. So reason number
one is out the window.
A vendingmachine God
The second reason I find
myself obeying is because I’m
trying to manipulate God into
blessing me or to giving me
something that I want. In this
system, I basically turn God into a
cosmic vendingmachine – I make
deposits of good works and
righteous deeds, and when it’s
time to push “F7” and wait for that
new car or perfect relationship to
drop down to where I can reach it,
I fully expect God to put out on
demand. The problem with this
scheme is that I’m kidding myself
if I think anything that I ever do
will be good enough to deserve
favor from God. God is holy,
righteous and perfect. The Bible
tells us that God is “pure and
cannot stand the sight of evil”
(Habakuk 1:3), that there is no one
righteous on the face of the earth
(Romans 3:10), and that if I
commit even the smallest of sins,
I am guilty of breaking God’s
entire law (James 2:10). Bottom
line? God is holy and I’m not, so
how can I even begin to think I am
entitled to a blessing from him
because I’ve “been really good
lately?” In light of God’s
indescribable holiness, that’s
pretty absurd, don’t you think? Say
goodbye to reason number two.
Love conquers all
The third reason – and the
only real and true one – that I obey
God is because he loves me.
Notice I didn’t say that I love him.
While I certainly confess that I do,
I’m also transparent enough to
admit that my love for him is weak
and fickle at best, and that I usually
act much more often out of love
for myself than I do out of genuine
love for God. But it’s at that point,
at the point when I’m faced with
my sin, selfishness and failure, that
his
undying,
unwavering,
boundless love for me cuts me the
heart. Only when I realize, believe
and accept that God loves me,
because of Jesus and in spite of
myself, do I find myself actually
wanting to obey him. It’s in those
moments that I really grasp that
truth that this amazing, loving,
gracious, merciful God chooses to
love me – not just when I’m good,
but also when I’m wicked and
sinful – that my heart becomes
putty in his hands and I findmyself
willing to do anything and
everything that he asks of me. Not
out of fear or any selfish
motivation, but simply because I
get howmuch he loves me.
I leave you with the following
question to consider for yourself.
What, right now, are youwilling to
stop doing or start doing simply
because Jesus loves you? If answer
that question honestly and come
up blank, it’s quite possible that
what may look like real obedience
in your life is actually the product
of
fear,
selfishness,
or
a
combination of the two. The hard
truth is if it doesn’t come from love,
it’s not true obedience. In my own
life, I can always trace a lack of love
for God back to a doubt that he
really loves me. The Bible tells us
that “we love because he first loved
us” (1 John 4:19 ESV). Maybe it’s
time to return to the joy of your
salvation and receive the truth the
he really, really loves you … in fact,
he loves you to death
Niicole Oliva is the Editor-in-Chief
of the Good News. She can be
reached via email at
nicoleo@goodnewsfl.org.
>
- Nicole Oliva -
HEART ISSUES
12 August 2013
Good News - Broward Edition
What is Your Motivation?