The New Year is coming, and I’m taking steps to make it a year of blessing. I want another year of growing in my passion for Jesus Christ.
Do you ever worry that, like the churches in Revelation, your passion may have become lukewarm? It’s a common concern for Christians. It happened to those early believers, and it can happen to us.
“Put others first.” “You think too highly of yourself.” “You’re selfish.”
If you hear these ideas enough, they can take over your understanding of morality.
What should our motivation be? Why care about doing the right thing?
I recently interviewed a writer named Lydia Borengasser. We found common ground on the controversial topic of Christian motivation.
Why do you follow God?
At foundation, the proper motivation is self-interest. Many don’t want to believe this. How do you convince them?
Keep asking “why?”
If there is an answer at all to the question of “why?” it must be a reason and it must be a reason for that person. If you can convince a person to keep asking why, he will keep getting closer to the inevitable answer of self-interest.
I advocate Christian Individualism. How can I do that? Many Christians believe Individualism is bad. Many believe it is incompatible with Scripture. Others believe Scripture has little to say on the issue.
It’s a hot topic. In a recent video by The Gospel Coalition, Don Carson said, “The Bible does not go around condemning individualism.” So what does the Bible say?
Does God want us to be motivated by his rewards?
For a very long time people have been singing of their great reward. And not only Americans.
The Hebrew book of worship, the Psalms, is prefaced by the following:
Blessed is the man
who walks not
In the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stands in the way of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
That yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
-Ps 1:1-3
Here are 50 of my favorite lines of blessing in the hymns.
