The Why of Motivation

We live life in a broken world.  That's all there is to it.  Apparently, it's our human nature to want to be broken.  Eve who was the second person in existence ever had a perfect father, hard working husband, and a perfect, beautiful garden to live in, and yet she thought she wanted more...and as a result, ruined it for the rest of us.  Literally.  But that's water under the bridge now, or is it?

We still have the sin nature created by Eve when she disobeyed the command God had given to her to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We still mess up on a daily basis, regularly and without fail.  That's what it means to be a sinner.  What is sin anyway?  I endeavor to not get stuck in "Christian-ese" where not everyone might know what I'm talking about.  Sin, put simply and  as it is explained in 1 John 5 is this: all wrongdoing.  All wrongdoing is sin.  Our God, the Creator of the universe, is so completely pure that He couldn't possible be around us if we weren't cleansed, so what in a broken world could cleanse us enough to be able to enter the presence of one so pure? Only an entirely, completely pure and holy sacrifice: Jesus Christ.

We're broken.  That's all there is to it.  We need redemption.  We need saving and God gave us an option--the only option that will actually save us.  It's the only option that will actually give us life. His perfect Son, Jesus.

You might notice in the expression above there are some words missing.  In the Bible, it's the words "the world." In this version, I like to plug in my name because if I were the only person on earth, God still would have sent His son to die in my place.  I'm the one that deserves to die, but He died for me. That's why I need to be constantly reminded about the good I can do in this world...because I'm broken.  I'm lost, but I've been saved by grace, meaning I didn't deserve it at all.  He loved me anyway.  

Through His strength alone, I can do good.  I can be a mirror reflecting His love to the world. Sometimes my mirror is dirty and smudged, but His grace washes me clean again, and I can again reflect His love to the world.  I'm not the source of the light.  He is, and apart from Him, I can do nothing.

Thanks for stopping by today.