Unrighteous motivations are fun and delicious. We salivate for them the same way we do harmful foods and habits. There is a special energy in unrighteous motivations that deceive us into justifying their existence. We get comfortable with them and wrongly interpret the energy as good due to its power and effectiveness.
Solomon describes the wise as those who "act with knowledge (Proverbs 13:16)." Doesn't that sound boring and old? Isn't it more fun to act with revenge, anger, jealousy, greed, deception, opportunism, raw emotion, hatred, self-pity, selfishness, immediate gratification, or any other counterfeit expression of the heart? The problem is that it is more fun. We sin because we want to.
When we act with a primarily unrighteous motivation a spirit of falsehood attaches itself to us. And falsehood has an intoxicating effect. It lures us into believing that our perceptions and actions are valid when in actuality they are askew. And no one can convince us otherwise. Falsehood's appetite is never satisfied once it starts hanging out in our hearts. It slowly grows and redirects us almost undetectably until one day in the far off future we discover our waywardness. And it is in that moment we realize the empty path of unrighteousness.
Our tendency is to spend much of life evaluating personal acts with either celebration or regret. What if instead we focused our time evaluating motivations? This was the shift Jesus introduced in the Sermon on the Mount. True righteousness begins in the secret places of the heart. It's a spirituality that moves us into a place of greater honesty and draws us closer to the kindness of God. For God alone knows our hidden motivations and yet continues in His steadfast, gracious process with us.
The trickery of our Adversary is to cunningly cultivate familiarity and fondness within us towards unrighteous motivations. This is why we almost proudly say things like, "That is just the way I am," conceding to an identity that God never intended for us. Yes, it might be "just who your are right now" but no, it is not "who you were created to be in the Lord."
God has given us the gift of His presence and an invitation to be still in it. It is there that our unrighteous motivations can give way to a purity and hopefulness that brings life. And joy springs forth in unpredictable ways.
Ex nihilo,
R.J. Rhoden
This is why we almost proudly say things like, "That is just the way I am," conceding to an identity that God never intended for us.
ReplyDelete"...but you [instead] be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."