We left off last time that God is always after our heart and our transformation. His motive in all He does in our life is to capture us for His Kingdom, a dash of fulfillment, and authenticity. (Have you heard the sermon about our gravestone? The gravestone gives the year of our birth and our death, and between those is a dash. The dash is our life.) Our personalities drive our life. Our personalities have a motive, according to the author, speaker, counselor John Eldredge. In his devotional, Restoration Year, May 10, he suggests that the motives behind our personalities might be wanting to be liked, wanting to be safe, and wanting to get ahead. Mine is wanting to be safe. Every single thing I do is weighed against what is the safest thing to do? That is why I am a writer, I would suppose. It’s safe to express myself in writing. It’s safe to have hobbies. (expensive, but safe)
Enough about me. I just wanted to be authentic here so you can be too. Take some time and think about your deepest motives. Could your reason be to be liked? To be safe? To get ahead? Or something else? Give yourself some time on this thought because it is this that hides your true self. God is after your true self. He wants to transform you into the image of his Son. Jesus was authentic. He knew who He was and always stayed true to that. He knew his purpose and was confident in who he was. How else could he have stood up to the religious elite time after time?
Jesus was fully human and fully God. That’s one of his mysteries. When Jesus said,” Not my will, but Thine,” he was giving up any right to his human kingdom and desiring only God’s. Thy Kingdom come…..
We read that Jesus prayed a lot, sometimes through the night. Jesus is our example of living in God’s Kingdom on earth. Sure we have to put up with sin and its consequences, but we are not expected to go it alone or in our strength and sheer determination. We are to do everything in partnership with God, who is after our heart and transformation. That’s what Jesus showed us.
Gene Edwards puts it, “Every day when our feet hit the floor, we have a decision to make. Will I live by my own strength or by the strength of the Holy Spirit?” That is our question and determines our strength. Graham Cooke puts it differently. He assumes we want to live by the Spirit and suggests asking God each morning, “Who do You want to be for me today?” What cause or person do you want me to affect for you? How do you want me to live in your Kingdom today?
What is your motive for living? To be liked, to be safe, to get ahead, or something else? Will you give that over to God and let Him heal your heart so you can be your true self, the person He thought of when He thought of you before the world began?
We need people whose only motive is to further what God started in the beginning, His Kingdom on earth, for our pleasure and fulfillment. Yes, we have to battle sin, and we have to pray for God’s help. I think when we see God answer our prayers in miraculous ways, He is giving us glimpses of the possibilities of living in His Kingdom. When we feel He is distant, it may be because we are trying to build our kingdom, which conflicts with His.
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