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Your Motivation for Living for God

Before I had a family, I had a different car—a black Firebird with T-tops.

Sitting behind those eight cylinders, I could go from zero to too-fast in about five seconds (but, of course, I never did).

Your Motivation for Living for God Your Motivation for Living for God

(Photo by Photodune)

After Cathy and I had our first daughter, I decided I needed a family vehicle. Car seats don’t fit in Firebirds.

So I sold the car.

A few months later, I found a spare set of keys to the Firebird, and I thought: I need to get these to the new owner. Even though I could have kept the keys (as insignificant as it seemed), they really weren’t mine to keep. I had sold them, in a sense, when I sold the car.

Living for God is like finding a spare set of keys to a car you no longer own.

In fact, you have a whole lot of keys that aren’t yours.

When God Asks Impossible Things of You

We tend to expect God to act in ways we can understand.

We work, and so God provides money. We pray, and so God answers prayer. We do this, and so God does that.

In other words, we see God as the effect and ourselves as the cause.

When God Asks of You Impossible Things When God Asks Impossible Things of You

(Photo by Photodune)

Life is all about God responding, it seems, and if we do nothing, neither will God.

This isn’t true, obviously. But it’s how we feel.

So what if we’re in a situation where we can do nothing? What happens when we can no longer be the cause?

When God asks impossible things of you?

Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt

Any woman who has experienced childbirth understands it.

Any helpless man who has witnessed childbirth, like me (twice), understands it to a degree. That’s why the Bible uses the experience of childbirth as a metaphor of our lives.

Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt

(Photo: By D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves . . . groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. —Romans 8:22–23

We would all love to have an emotional epidural to where we didn’t feel the pain of life. But that won’t happen.

God doesn’t give us a way to avoid the hurt.

But He does tell us what to think so we can make it through the struggle.

The Ideal Life You Want Isn’t Enough

Most people live for dreams. It’s a quest, really.

Clinging to ideals of how life could and “should” be, they chase those dreams like a carrot on a stick. Always within reach, but never gotten.

The Ideal Life You Want Isnt Enough The Ideal Life You Want Isnt Enough

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I guess we’re all wired to pursue the ideal. The world calls it following “your heart,” and we Christians refer to it as “the will of God.”

But in truth, we generally settle for nothing less than our version of how life ought to be.

Any search for the ideal needs only to look at the Garden of Eden to see the futility of that pursuit.

God points us a different direction.

When Your Life Feels Empty

My dad used to have an old pickup truck I would borrow for odd jobs.

It wasn’t a good-looking truck, but it was faithful. The only glitch in the deal was the gas gauge. It read “almost empty” no matter how much gas you had.

When Your Life Feels Empty When Your Life Feels Empty

(Photo by Rick Harris from Whiby, Ontario, Canada. Uploaded by PDTillman. CC-BY-SA-2.0)

If you had just filled up, it read “almost empty.” If you had half a tank, it read “almost empty.” The gauge only worked when you were out of gas! It would immediately move from “almost empty” to “empty.” I remember once I coasted into a gas station on fumes and a prayer.

I have found one thing in life that cuts the cable from the gas tank to the gas gauge quicker than anything else.

It drains your relationships with people and dries up your walk with God.
It blurs your vision, exaggerates your emotions, and takes a healthy, balanced perspective of life and twists it of proportion.

I’m talking about the pervasive and infectious attitude of bitterness.

You can be riding along with a full tank, but bitterness will show you a gauge “almost empty.”

What if Your Busy Life Isn’t Productive?

I used to have an old car with a funny way of handling cold weather.

In the mornings I’d turn on the headlights, the heat, the rear defrost, and the radio. Everything was fine until I got to an intersection and turned on my blinker.

When I did, the radio blinked off and on.

What if Your Busy Life Isnt Productive What if Your Busy Life Isnt Productive?

(Photo by yellowj, via Vivozoom)

The small drain from the blinker was more than the power source could handle.

Many mornings I feel like my old car. Every ounce of energy is already being used, and if even one small additional drain is required from me, the overload starts shutting down my system.

We’ve all been there. A busy life means little margin. And often, little productivity.

Jesus told a story that directly addressed the busy life of a believer.

Being Better than Your Parents is the Wrong Goal

You can live better than your parents did.

Or you can live worse. It’s true.

Growing up in a godly home is no guarantee you’ll follow God. But it’s also true that a godless home doesn’t doom you to a failed life.

Being Better than Your Parents is the Wrong Goal Being Better than Your Parents is the Wrong Goal

(Photo by Design Pics, via Vivozoom)

I know of one young man who had as his goal to be a better father than his father was to him. And he did it.

But then he realized that wasn’t enough.

Being better than your parents is doable, sure, but it’s the wrong goal.

Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance

Taking the path of least resistance is a fact of nature.

Rivers always flow around a mountain because it’s easier than going through it. Electricity will always move through a circuit along the “easiest” route. A car is designed aerodynamically for the least resistance to wind.

Human nature is no different. Unfortunately.

Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance

(Photo by Perry from Ottawa, Canada. Fading. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

We tend to do that which is easiest, often to the neglect of that which is best.

It’s easier to read a magazine than to read your Bible.
It’s easier to sit in front of the TV than to spend time with your kids.
It’s easier to lose your temper with your spouse than to control it.

Following the path of least resistance can become a habit that guides our lives. We make choices based on what is easiest, most pleasant, or least painful.

But God has a better plan for you.

3 Promises to Help Your Fear of Change

Let me guess. You sit in the same spot in church each week.

You also drive the same way to work each day. You eat the same things for breakfast. And you pray the same way at meals. (It’s true. Just ask your family.)

3 Promises to Help Your Fear of Change 3 Promises to Help Your Fear of Change

(Photo by Copyright Design Pics, via Vivozoom)

You and I both are creatures of habit. We like the security of a predictable routine. And as long as nobody sits in our seat at church, life is fine.

Or to say it another way, we have a fear of change. Here’s why:

The only change we welcome is the change we expect. Like the seasons. We plan for it and can adjust accordingly.
We also like the change we initiate, like a new job or even a dry diaper, because it gets us what we want.

God, however, has a different view.

We have a fear of change, but He has a strange commitment to it.

Although God is willing to accept us as we are, He also loves us enough not to leave us that way.