What Drives You?

This is part 3 of my blog series titled The Heart of the Matter.

The heart is generally acknowledged as the source of your emotions and passion - hence this topic 'what drives you?'

When you discover something that drives you forward, you develop a positive outlook on life. You begin to see the future clearly. You have a reason to live.

Josh Kaufman Explains 'Core Human Drives'

• The Drive to Acquire. ...the desire to purchase and own things.

• The Drive to Bond. ... the desire to be loved and feel valued in our relationships with others.

• The Drive to Learn. ... the desire to satisfy our curiosity

• The Drive to Defend the desire to protect someone or something from danger, or defend a standpoint.

Forces, such as beliefs, values, interests, fear, and worthy causes can motivate people. Some of these forces are internal, such as needs, interests, and beliefs. Others are external, such as danger, the environment, or pressure from a loved one.

Per DISC, there are 4 distinct personality types, with some overlaps and some anomalies. Dictator, Influencer, Socialite, and/or Controller. Completing an assessment can reveal what personality type you fall into (most of the time, not always, as humans are unpredictable at best).

The Four Forms of Motivation

• Extrinsic Motivation. ...motivated to perform an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment.

• Intrinsic Motivation. ...motivated to perform an activity for its own sake and personal rewards.

• Introjected Motivation. ...is a form of motivation resulting from feeling pressured to perform in order to gain appreciation from individuals such as parents or bosses.

• Identified Motivation occurs as understanding or feeling the need to perform or accomplish some task, but not yet acting on this need.

Motivation is important in almost every aspect of human behavior. When you make a decision, your choice is certainly influenced by your motivational state. When you study mathematics, your motivation to study mathematics clearly affects the way you learn it.

If you are motivated, you learn better and remember more of what you learned.

Recent studies have shown that rewards enhance learning outcomes. But research in social psychology has also found that extrinsic rewards can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation when people are engaged in an interesting task (internal motivation outweighs external rewards, e.g. going through an MRI scan).

Where do your emotions get excited or triggered most? – that could be what is most important in your life. Don’t let anything eclipse Christ’s place in your life.

Consider where you are investing your emotions and energy. When that thing is threatened, you experience the negative emotions of fear, anxiety, anger, bitterness and despondency. These emotions come into our lives to highlight that we are placing our hope on the wrong things. Rather set your heart and mind on Christ, and make Him your meaning, identity and completeness.

When your idol is under threat, you will have a disproportionate level of anger in you about it. This is due to your misplaced loyalties. Religion without transformation is no different to irreligion, which is when your heart is given to things other than to God.

Luke 7:131 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” This teaches that what you do should be motivated by compassion.

Don’t pursue things, pursue Him, and He will give you them. Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

We need to make a conscious decision to act in the correct way. John 5:6 “ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

We are not to condemn ourselves. 1 John 3:20 “ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

Per Nicky Gumbel, Good fear is respect for God. Bad fear is being frightened of something. In Psalm 39:1-13, David found that his anguish increased when he was not in community with God (v2). Life is short (v4,5) and we strive for wealth (v6). David sees that his hope lies in God (v7) and he depends completely on God for the answer (surrender). Life is too short to worry about stupid things. Rather pray, trust God and thus enjoy life.

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” God is love (1 John 4:16) and we have God’s Spirit in us, so we should not fear.

Luke 8:19-25 teaches us to trust Jesus in the storms of our lives.

Prayer: Lord, please give me a healthy fear, which is awe, amazement and humility in the presence of Jesus, and a faith in Him that delivers me from all my unhealthy fears.

Gospel Revolution Extracts (what motivates us)

1) Motivated by Love. Doing good works happens most sustainably on the back of a loving relationship. Love turns duty into delight, because love changes everything. Allow God’s love for you to fuel your love for Jesus, and consequently to fuel your works of love for Him.

2) Motivated by Good Works. We have been saved to do good works of obedience “For it is by grace you have been saved…not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10). He now graciously allows me to contribute to His cause on the earth. Christ calls me to “conduct myself in a manner worthy of His Gospel” as my good deeds are a source of witness to people who don’t yet know Jesus, and they are a tangible way of expressing my love and worship to God. Because I have been ‘created’ to do these good works, it means that I will be most fulfilled as I do them. Doing good pleases God, satisfies me, and benefits those around me.

3) Motivated by Heavenly Rewards. Although doing “good works” doesn’t save us, they are so important that we will even get rewarded for them, and we are encouraged to pursue rewards in many places in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 2:11-15 “…It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

Also, we grow through:

· Reading Scripture

· Prayer

· Worship

· Receiving from the Holy Spirit

· Engaging with the local church.

What you focus on enables you to perform miracles, like Peter did in walking on water while he focused on Jesus, but he started sinking as soon as he started doubting. (Matthew 14:28-31).

Per Matthew 4, we serve what we worship, whatever it is; if you worship the wrong thing, you will end up serving the wrong thing. In worshipping God, we realize what God desires, and we find it much easier to serve.

Building your life on Christ’s values is about not needing the validation or approval of others in what you do because you do them for God, and not being anxious, because God will provide.

The Gospel starts to grow in you like a new baby. Nobody is born mature, with everything sorted out. You need a father to guide and teach you. Don’t expect it all to come together immediately. Allow this birth to do its work. Allow God’s fathering, God’s parenting, God’s habits to work in your life over many years. Allow yourself to become more and more spiritually mature as you grow. ‘You need to grow up in your salvation”. You need patience. Continue to cultivate the life of God in you.

Our motivation should be the approval of God, as you cannot live for the approval of God and of people at the same time. You need to decide where your priorities and identity are.

God is impossible to please if we are living for the approval of others; otherwise God is very easy to please, as all He desires is that we seek our approval from Him.