Motive part 5
The tricky part about motive is that it's so easy to get it twisted. To do something, but to have an ulterior motive. Or to do something because you have the wrong motive--which, at the time, feels like the right motive. The ONLY motive. It's so easy to let our emotions control us. Or to let them bubble out because they're right there on the surface. Or to try to bottle them up and then watch helplessly as they explode. Emotions are big. And powerful. So here's what I always say to that, "Feel what you feel, but don't let it control." Nobody can tell you how you should feel. For 1, they aren't you so they can't say. And for 2, you're going to feel however you feel regardless. So it's pointless to try to tell someone else how to feel. The key is to empathize with them. To LET them feel what they feel without taking it personally--even if it is personal. Sometimes people just need to let those emotions out, and sometimes you might find yourself caught in the crossfire. Here's my point: Just because someone takes something out on you doesn't mean they hate you. You might just be in the way of their emotional outburst. That doesn't make it "right" for them to treat you like a punching bag, but it's important to remember that the way someone treats you says more about THEM than it does about you. Normal people don't go around destroying other people. And people who are filled with love simply go around loving other people. That, then, MUST be our motivation. God working--LOVE working--in us to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. Jesus living HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrction Life of love in us, and through us, and as us as we know and believe that that is what He is doing. God's motive is that He wants the best for us. That's why He gave the best to us. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). See, He wanted us to NOT perish. To NOT struggle. He didn't want us to merely survive. He wanted us to thrive. He wanted us to have everlasting life. HIS life. A life of love. Knowing that we are loved (by God) and loving Him back with that same love. Knowing what we have (and who we are, and where we are, and why we're here) so that we could share what we have (and who we are). So that we could receive and release the gift He has given us and in that way experience and enjoy that gift. The gift of life. Freely we have been given, freely we can give. That's our motive. Doing things because they are in our heart to do them. Doing things heartily--to the best of our ability, and because they are in our heart to do them. That HAS to be the motivation. Not getting... giving. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. So don't get it twisted. Don't focus on what you (think you) don't have. We have no lack because our God has no lack. He gave it all to us when He gave His only begotten Son to us. And now, because of that, we have something to give. In the same way that Jesus gave Himself, we can give ourselves. Everything we have and everything we are!