A person that is self-motivated is very driven to accomplish goals and ambitions, and they usually don’t require a lot of prodding and supervision. They assess and quickly analyze a situation with a good degree of accuracy and then proceed to do what needs to be done. My friend, Cameron, is this way. He’s a 28-year-old man that is both very successful and smart. During high-school, sports was his thing. His dad thought he was a natural at basketball, and when a major growth spurt hit at twelve and seem to just keep going, everyone started paying attention. He learned very early on to apply himself to whatever he wanted to accomplish, and it paid off nearly every time. He’s adopted certain habit patterns and is methodical about them. Cameron is what I call a truly self-motivated person.
Recently, Cameron has experienced a few setbacks, and the achievement of goals that came so easy to him once are presenting more than a few challenges. He’s finding this very difficult to manage. Although he received a full-ride basketball scholarship for college, he decided to leave the sport and concentrate on his MBA degree. He did so successfully, and has a very good job, but he isn’t fulfilled. It’s brought back the same emptiness he felt when sports no longer gave him the kind of satisfaction that it once did. He’s tried lots of different things to get that old feeling back. A foray into entrepreneurship was draining, and the timing for all his other ideas just seemed off. He feels stuck and perplexed as to why nothing is flowing the way he expected.
For most of his life, he’s been driven by the chase of adrenaline and confidence. Both have satisfied and paved the way for continued success, but lately, he’s suspicious about the chase, and the truth of it all is lurking beneath his consciousness. Chasing adrenaline and self-confidence isn’t enough to sustain the foundation of a person’s life, but Cameron has counted on this for so long, and he’s not ready to admit to himself that it’s failing him. Admitting to feeling insecure has never been in his toolbox. For him, it’s almost worse than failure.
It’s clear to me, and probably any other person in the faith, that Cameron is shifting into a season unlike any other in his life. He thinks he knows everything, and with him, humility is almost a foreign concept. He equates being humble to weakness and ignorance, and he learned this attitude from his dad. So, it runs deep, but when God has a plan for your life, no matter how entrenched things like arrogance, pride, and stubbornness may be, they have no other choice but to kneel and be made obedient to God’s plan and purpose.
Because we’re very set in our old ways, we do not allow this process of spiritually growing to unfold as peacefully as it could. We fight against the Will of God for our lives. We want things to unfold our way, and we expect God to follow along. This will never work. God can never be second in command. Proverbs 19:21(NLT) states, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” God created life in such a way that it will always cooperate with His purpose, and it will cooperate with us when we are aligned with God’s purpose. When we’re not, and we get too far out of pocket, life will let us know it, and this usually happens in stages.
First, we receive a tap on the shoulder. This is most often an anomaly that slightly upsets our routines. Many people never take notice of such things. Because they are so locked into doing things their way, they don’t take the time to pray and ask God for direction, often forging ahead without seeking His guidance. We must recognize that He warns us to pay attention to even the small things, so that when a season of change is upon us, we’ll begin to strengthen our faith muscles.
If we don’t pay attention to the tap on the shoulder, a thump on the head is somewhere in the vicinity, and it’s more than a slight irritation. Internally things are shaken up a bit, because we’re out of place and everything in our circumstances is beginning to sound the alarm. The appropriate response to the thump is to recognize that we’re lacking God’s spiritual armor for our heads. He tells us in Ephesians 6:17(NLT) to “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” We’re to put these on and keep them on, so that we can stand firm against the plots of the devil.
Again, the problem with many of us is that we don’t realize we’re missing God’s armor. This was Cameron’s issue. He questioned himself when the thump came, but he should have been seeking God as Christ commands us in Matthew 6:33. Instead, like many of us, Cameron was looking back to what worked for him in the past. Rather than waking up spiritually, self-motivation took on a thick layer of selfishness. This is what blinded him most.
In Matthew 11:28-30(NLT), Jesus Christ gives us a beautiful and desperately needed invitation. He tells us, “28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” A boulder is headed Cameron’s way. If he doesn’t seek the Lord, this boulder will smash his life into pieces. It will destroy everything in its wake, because the devil has no mercy. Cameron desperately needs to except the invitation that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ offers to us all. He needs to rest in the arms of Jesus Christ and take it upon himself to learn of our blessed Savior. He needs to know more about the example of Christ and allow God to guide his steps, so that his life can be transformed.
Transformation into the very image of Christ is God’s plan for each of us. Rather than being chiefly motivated by our own agendas, we must humble ourselves before our Heavenly Father, because He requires our every move to be motivated out of His love. In Jeremiah 29:11, He tells us that He knows the plans He has for us; they are plans to prosper us and not harm us. They are plans that inspire our hope in Christ and secure our futures.
Our heavenly father knows what is best, and we must surrender to this totally and completely. Even when we don’t acknowledge Him or His love for us, God still loves us more than we could ever possibly know. Ephesians 1:11(NLT) tells us, “Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” God chose us first. He chose us long before we entered our mother’s wombs. We belong to Him and it is both a tremendous privilege and our responsibility to align our lives with God’s purpose. When we do, a new way of living will open up for us, and we will be so incredibly thankful that we switched from being motivated only by what benefits ourselves to being motivated to please God. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“From Self-Motivation to God Motivation”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.