Silas
Servant of All
Struggling with motivation can feel like wading through deep mud, and I will certainly pray for you. But let me also offer a thought that may help you examine what is truly happening beneath the surface. Often, when we say we have lost motivation, what we are really facing is that our initial reason for doing something has run dry. The real question is not just how to get motivated again, but why we were doing the task in the first place.
God looks upon the heart. There is a kind of motivation that relies on recognition, personal gain, or the applause of others. That is a carnal motivation, a work of the flesh, and God does not honor it. When our drive is fed by those things, it will inevitably starve, because the world cannot consistently supply them. Jesus warned about those who did mighty works in His name, yet He said to them, “I never knew you.” The works were there, but the motivation of the heart was fundamentally wrong. It was not love for Christ.
The only motivation that endures is the love of Jesus Christ. If I try to serve the Lord for any lesser reason, for glory, out of competition, or to receive material blessing, I am causing myself to labor for the food that perishes. Paul described people whose god was their own belly, men who were really looking out for themselves. They were not true shepherds; they were serving for a paycheck. That motivation will collapse under the weight of hardship. When Paul sat in a freezing prison, abandoned by Demas who loved this present world, he was not kept going by a cheerful personality or a promise of earthly comfort. He begged Timothy to be diligent, to come before winter and bring the coat, because he was cold and lonely. But his life’s mission did not stop just because he was discouraged. The Lord stood with him in that dark night.
Discouragement is one of the enemy’s sharpest tools. He will try to stop you with ridicule, then with sneak attacks, and if that fails, he will bury you under the sheer rubble of the task until you say, like the people in Nehemiah’s day, “We can’t do it.” When you only look at the massive pile of stones in front of you, your strength will fail. The cure for that kind of discouragement is not to find a superficial pep talk; it is to get your eyes off the problem and onto the Lord.
Let this moment of low motivation drive you to seek the Lord rather than seeking a feeling. Peter tells us to give all diligence to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, and self-control. This is the path to completeness. We are not supposed to remain as infants who need the constant thrill of a reward to take a step. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. If you focus your energy on growing in your knowledge of Jesus, on building those spiritual qualities, you have a glorious promise: you will never fall. Your motivation will shift from a fleshly craving for results to a steady, abiding relationship. Then, whether you feel motivated or not, you will be standing on a foundation that cannot be shaken.
God looks upon the heart. There is a kind of motivation that relies on recognition, personal gain, or the applause of others. That is a carnal motivation, a work of the flesh, and God does not honor it. When our drive is fed by those things, it will inevitably starve, because the world cannot consistently supply them. Jesus warned about those who did mighty works in His name, yet He said to them, “I never knew you.” The works were there, but the motivation of the heart was fundamentally wrong. It was not love for Christ.
The only motivation that endures is the love of Jesus Christ. If I try to serve the Lord for any lesser reason, for glory, out of competition, or to receive material blessing, I am causing myself to labor for the food that perishes. Paul described people whose god was their own belly, men who were really looking out for themselves. They were not true shepherds; they were serving for a paycheck. That motivation will collapse under the weight of hardship. When Paul sat in a freezing prison, abandoned by Demas who loved this present world, he was not kept going by a cheerful personality or a promise of earthly comfort. He begged Timothy to be diligent, to come before winter and bring the coat, because he was cold and lonely. But his life’s mission did not stop just because he was discouraged. The Lord stood with him in that dark night.
Discouragement is one of the enemy’s sharpest tools. He will try to stop you with ridicule, then with sneak attacks, and if that fails, he will bury you under the sheer rubble of the task until you say, like the people in Nehemiah’s day, “We can’t do it.” When you only look at the massive pile of stones in front of you, your strength will fail. The cure for that kind of discouragement is not to find a superficial pep talk; it is to get your eyes off the problem and onto the Lord.
Let this moment of low motivation drive you to seek the Lord rather than seeking a feeling. Peter tells us to give all diligence to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, and self-control. This is the path to completeness. We are not supposed to remain as infants who need the constant thrill of a reward to take a step. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. If you focus your energy on growing in your knowledge of Jesus, on building those spiritual qualities, you have a glorious promise: you will never fall. Your motivation will shift from a fleshly craving for results to a steady, abiding relationship. Then, whether you feel motivated or not, you will be standing on a foundation that cannot be shaken.
