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| Getting Motivated series |





* How Does God Define Success?

* What If I Don’t Succeed? (Fear of Failure)

* What if I’m Not the Best?

* What’s Our Motivation?

* Why Am I in a Dry Season?

* We Need Spiritual Hunger

* Revelations that Change Us

* God’s Glory Concealed

* Hope in Heaven

* Why Did Paul Say YOLO?

* What Is Hope

* Can Society Be An Idol?

* Have We Idolized Reason?

* Why is Good So Good?

* Why is Faith the Answer to Sin?

* Is the Pill Pro-Life?

* Pro-Life Family Planning Guide

* What Does Judging/Helping Look Like?

* Judgement That’s Loving

* Don’t Judge… Help!

* Don’t Judge.

* IVF Guide Discussion

* How to Stay Engaged in Quiet Times

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| Getting Motivated series |





* What’s Our Motivation?

* What if I’m Not the Best?

* What If I Don’t Succeed? (Fear of Failure)

* How Does God Define Success?















Inadequacy vs. Fear of Failure







In our struggle for motivation, a lot of things can stand in our way. Not least of which is fear, particularly the fear of failure. We all feel it, and to be honest, it’s a fairly rational fear. The reality of this world is that even if we try our hardest, even if we are diligent and thoughtful, failure may still find us. This is because of a very simple truth, so many things are outside of our control, even important things. We can do everything right with regards to the inputs (our efforts) and still find that the outputs (the results) are nevertheless lacking.







In this series on Getting Motivated, we talked last time about how to overcome feelings of inadequacy that can hold us back, gaining insight from the Parable of the Talents. If I could characterize the difference between feelings of inadequacy and a fear of failure it would be with a similar description: When we feel inadequate, we feel we’re not able to provide the needed inputs; when we feel a fear of failure, we fear that even with the proper inputs we still won’t achieve the output/results we want. Whereas the servant with two talents taught us how to respond to feelings of inadequacy last time, I saw answers to our struggle against the fear of failure in the story of the servant with just one talent.







The Servant with Only One Talent







In the Parable of the Talents, the master of the house gave talents to his servants based on their ability before going on a journey. To one he gave five, to another two, and to the third he gave just one talent. The first two servants worked hard with what they were entrusted, trading with them to make a return. The third servant, however, didn’t follow their example but “went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money”. But… Why?







Why did he do this? He explains his reasoning when he’s asked to give an account for what was entrusted to him:







“Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” (Matthew 25:24-25, emphasis added)







Notice how he said, “so I was afraid”. In a way, what he’s describing here is a fear of failure. More particularly, because this statement follows his description o...

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| Getting Motivated series |





* What’s Our Motivation?

* What if I’m Not the Best?

* What If I Don’t Succeed? (Fear of Failure)

* How Does God Define Success?















When we’re considering whether we should do something, whether we should work hard at it, the first question that often enters our mind is this: “Will I be any good at it?” To consider that question, we’ll look at the people who are the best at it and make the honest assessment: “I’ll never be as good as them”. To make matters worse (forgive my honesty) there’s a good chance we’re right.







Before I started writing for Loving Theology, I looked at all the Christian speakers and writers who were incredibly gifted and successful and came to the very accurate conclusion that I would never be that good.







Here’s what’s happening: Because of the way we consider the question, we aren’t just asking if we will be any good at it; we’re really asking if we will be the best at it. We trick ourselves into thinking we won’t be any good at it because we know we won’t be the best at it. There’s no more sure way to kill any motivation than this line of thinking. But what, specifically, is wrong with it? Does the Bible give us a better way to think about it?







Is God Calling Me?







I had this idea in my mind (and I suspect I’m not alone) that because I wasn’t going to be the best at it, I probably hadn’t found what God was calling me to do. I felt there was some niche calling for me out there that God had uniquely gifted me to be the best at if I could just find it. While we might not all acknowledge it in those words, I think this thought affects all of us, making it difficult to feel confident in what God has called us to.







This line of thinking led me to a conclusion: Since I’m not going to be the best, I probably haven’t found my calling and I need to keep searching. God corrected me for the pride in my heart that was underlying this way of thinking. It’s uncomfortable to admit, but He showed me that my own delusions of grandeur were holding me back from embracing His calling because it was more modest than what I had built up in my mind.







The Parable of the Talents







When God first corrected me in this way of thinking, He brought me to the Parable of the Talents which is found in Matthew 25. It starts like this:







“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

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| Getting Motivated series |





* What’s Our Motivation?

* What if I’m Not the Best?

* What If I Don’t Succeed? (Fear of Failure)

* How Does God Define Success?















The good news of the gospel is that our righteousness, our position with God, our spot in heaven is not based on what we’ve done. On the cross, Christ gave us all this and more when He gave us His relationship with the father as a free gift (check out our post Peace with God). In many ways, this is what makes Christianity so unique: we don’t get ourselves to heaven. But, if we’re totally honest, this encouraging truth can sometimes make it hard to be motivated.







I mean, if what Isaiah said was really true and “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6), then why go through the trouble of doing what’s right? If we’re already saved and we can’t add to our righteousness, it can be hard to get motivated to endure the self-sacrifice of, for example, living generously.







So, What’s in It for Me?







Now this is one of those thoughts we aren’t supposed to have, one of those questions we aren’t supposed to acknowledge crossed our mind. Maybe you’ve found a better (less selfish, more “Christian”) way to word it, but when I’m struggling to find motivation, somewhere in the back of my mind I’m asking, “Why should I go through all this trouble?”. As terrible as it sounds, I’m kind of asking, “What’s in this for me?”







It can be tempting to feel like this isn’t a Christian thought. We sometimes imagine Christianity is about taking what we want out of the equation. It might surprise you to hear that this idea of “emptying ourselves of desire” is actually Buddhist, not Christian. Consider just this small sample of verses:







Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.Psalms 37:4







May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!Psalms 20:4







How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

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| Revelations and Glory series |





* God’s Glory Concealed

* Revelations that Change Us

* We Need Spiritual Hunger

* Why Am I in a Dry Season?















We have all gone through dry seasons where we feel disconnected from Him, seasons where we don’t see revelations like we used to. Why does this happen? What causes these seasons to sneak up on us? Whereas we have seen why we want to overcome these seasons, today we’re going to look for how we do that by understanding what keeps us there. Whereas we saw the encouragement in Scripture to desire to pursue Him, now let’s see the exhortation to actually do it.







Last time we saw that Paul’s instructions about what keeps a person from being able to eat food were also given to teach us about God’s principles for spiritual food (revelations from God) as well. We saw the theme of these instructions was that we must be willing to work if we want to eat. We must be willing to “seek with all our heart” if we want to find. But the rest of this passage gets so specific and shows us four things that keep us in these dry seasons.







For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now we command and exhort such persons in the Lord Jesus Christ to work peacefully and eat their own bread. (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, NASB)







Discipline







First, Paul describes those who are “leading an undisciplined life”. That word for “undisciplined” can more directly be understood as “lacking proper order”. I can think of no more perfect word to describe the pattern that I slip into over and over, where I slowly forget the importance of spending time seeking revelation from His word in His presence. I’ve forgotten the “proper order” of things and reduced the importance of what is essential to my spiritual health. What’s more, over time I eventually see and feel the effects this has on every aspect of my health.







When we’re in a dry season, this is the first question we can ask: Have I forgotten the importance of spending time with Him, spending time meditating on His Word?







Idleness







Paul goes on to describe these people as “doing no work at all”. When we think of applying this to spiritual food, it reminds us of something that’s easy to forget: Revelation does not come without work. I can certainly attest to that.

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| Revelations and Glory series |





* God’s Glory Concealed

* Revelations that Change Us

* We Need Spiritual Hunger

* Why Am I in a Dry Season?















We have all felt lost at times. We’ve all struggled with questions about our purpose. Ever found yourself asking “Why am I here?” or “What’s the point?” We could describe this as a sense of dissatisfaction. We are no longer satisfied with where we’re at, with what life has to offer. While it might be unpleasant, this is the first step in an amazing and powerful journey. We’re feeling the first hint of a desire for something more. We’re becoming aware of an appetite we have, a hunger not for physical things like food but for spiritual things like meaning and purpose.







We saw last time that the solution to this journey is found in the way that God reveals Himself, reveals His glory to us. He doesn’t tell us everything plainly but asks us to press into the hunger as we pursue revelation from Him. We saw the promise of how we will be changed when we “search things out”. As we behold His glory, we are transformed into His likeness and experience the fulfillment of our purpose, that we were made in the image of God.







The pattern that’s demonstrated here begins with our desire to search things out and ends with a promise that we will be satisfied. But this isn’t the only time we see this promise in Scripture.







The Promise to the Hungry







Notice the similarity to the promise in Jeremiah 29:







You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13







Like we discussed in the first post, this displays God’s glory by showing us His character, that in His unapproachable glory He has chosen to be approachable. What’s required of us to approach though? What’s required of us to receive revelation? It’s not intelligence or wisdom (see Luke 10:21), because (as we’ve seen) this revelation does not come from our own reading of the Scripture, but from His willingness to reveal the truth to us as we seek.







If not intelligence, what must we have to receive revelation? Spiritual hunger: a relentless desire to know Him. God has made it so simple. To know Him, we must simply want to know Him. In this way, access to God is not reserved for the smartest or wisest among us but all of us have just as much opportunity to receive it. He is so good! He is so kind!







We’ve seen here that as we pursue Him we are changed. That there is a promise to us when we “search things out”. Jesus used the illustration of hunger several times in His ministry to show us ...