I would rev up my Christian to do list with all manner of serving, blessing and giving others that kind of love I was so desperate to have boomerang back on me. Those are all good things. Fabulous activities. Biblical instructions. But when given from a heart whose real motivation is what I’m hoping I’ll get in return is not really love at all. That’s not the answer. Giving with strings of secret expectations attached is the greatest invitation to heartbreak. That’s not love. That’s manipulation, and it’s also unrealistic. Only audiences are trained to applaud performances. People in everyday life can sniff out the neediness of a performer trying to earn love. Their instinct isn’t to clap, but rather to be repulsed by the fakeness of it all, and walk away. No soul can soar to the place of living loved when it’s a performance based endeavour. Living loved is sourced in your quiet daily surrender to the One who made you.
Motivation
Richard J Foster
The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture.
Arthur W. Pink
The severest self-denials and the most lavish gifts are of no value in God’s esteem unless they are prompted by love.
John Bevere
The Bible doesn’t tell us to speak truth in anger or self-righteousness—only to speak the truth in love. As God’s children, let’s never speak with an attitude that says “I told you so” or “I know more than you” or “I’m better than you.” When we bring correction in a mean-spirited way, we demonstrate a lack of compassion for those we address. That’s so tragic and costly. All of us must be motivated, moved, and even consumed with love when we speak into someone’s life, or we should not speak at all.
Jeremy Riddle
When we allow worship to become about a worship leader, a song, a musical expression, a church growth agenda, a brand, an industry, a musical gig, a personal need for breakthrough, or any other agenda that is self-seeking and self-serving—anything besides ministering to Jesus—we allow the life it carries to be trampled out of it.
Floyd McClung
By trying to please people and live up to their expectations, we can easily fall into a false form of spirituality. We find ourselves praying, reading Scripture, and worshipping not from the heart but from a secret motive to impress others. We become more interested in how we look to others than how we look to God. The more insecure we are, the more susceptible we become to the opinions of others. Humility frees us from this form of pride, allowing us to live to please the Lord.
David Jeremiah
The Corinthians had put the messenger who had brought this gospel message to them under scrutiny. They had analyzed his approach, his speaking style, and even his personal characteristics and had concluded there was nothing at all remarkable about him. If his message was truly sent by God, shouldn’t there have been something more special about him? Paul’s response is that the believers were missing the point. It is exactly because the message is so important that the messenger is so weak. Just like a treasure in an earthen vessel, it is not the fragile, breakable, disposable vessel that matters most but the treasure it carries inside. If that were not the case, the vessel might think it was the treasure! The life of the disciple must be modeled on the gospel itself.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Our prayers may be very beautiful in appearance and might appear to be the very paragon of devotion, but unless there is a secret spiritual force in them, they are vain things.
Deborah Jo Werklund
The first assumption we should always make is that someone’s heart is good, not evil. Then even if there was poor intentions, your assumption of good can pull them into the light.
Bobby Connor
Love must be the motivating factor for our purity and holiness. This prerequisite is absolutely essential if we are to abide in God’s power and presence.