Tag Archives: Motivation

Motivation

Living in the Spirit

August 1, 2022

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

When you come to appear before me,
   who asked this from your hand?
   Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
   incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—
   I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
   my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
   I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands,
   I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
   I will not listen;
   your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
   remove the evil of your doings
   from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
   learn to do good;
seek justice,
   rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
   plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:10-17

This scripture begs the question of what is going on in our inner beings in our relationship with God. God knows exactly what our motivation is for all our actions. When we worship God are we worshipping God or concerned about how our worship activities impress those around us? Perhaps that is why Jesus said, ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. –Matthew 6:5-6

We are called to examine ourselves so that our motivations are as in touch with God as our actions.

Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10) Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

What Motivates You?

Lent

March 16, 2021

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

What would the world be like if we all knew the Lord as God is, not what we want God to be? Therein lies the rub. It is just too easy to take the road most traveled and measure righteousness by the quantity of society’s agreement rather than the justice of our actions as they represent God and the best outcomes for all people.

This year Tulsa, Oklahoma, is observing the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead resulting from the riot. A 2001 state commission examination of events confirmed 39 dead, 26 black, and 13 white. The Commission estimated there could have been between 75 and 300 people killed. Mass grave sites are now being studied to provide answers. The riot started apparently when a young black man did something to scare a white woman. The truth is, the cause was probably tied to white privilege and greed. Tulsa’s predominately African American Greenwood District was dubbed Black Wall Street. It was a thriving middle-class and upper-middle-class community, probably also tied to the day’s oil boom. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI documents the story of the greed of outsiders trying to reap the oil’s riches on Osage land. These activities occurred in the 1920s, shortly after the Tulsa Race Riot. Osage County borders Tulsa County on the North.

Lent is an excellent time to consider what motivates us to do the things we do and causes us to choose the values we practice. Are we growing in God’s wisdom and truth or being carried away by our cultural priorities?

Prayer: Lord, help us know you more nearly to shape our motivations to match yours. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.