When You’re Just Not Feeling It

Motivation is an incredibly popular word these days. We talk about needing motivation and losing motivation. We have motivation boards on Pinterest and find our methods of motivation. If we take a minute and think through what we mean by all of that, it’s a little humbling to realize that all this motivation talk is really a fancy way of saying, “I’m not in the mood.”  

I think this subject of motivation is important to our conversation on faithfulness. If my faithfulness is dependent on my motivation level, I am in trouble. I don’t feel like waking up early.  I don’t feel like eating right, unless, of course, I am in the motivation zone – which unfortunately seems to blow to and fro with every wind that passes. I don’t always feel like walking up to all of our visitors, introducing myself, and getting to know them. I don’t feel like filling in for the missing nursery worker…again. (Oh, I know you’ve been there!)

Finding our next “hit” of motivation seems to be a science all its own, but God has something more sure and solid and powerful for us. We need something greater than our emotions if we’re going to stick with God’s calling for the long term.  And I think Mary’s response to the angel’s message of her new life as the mother of the Messiah is a response for all of us, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:39)

What we need isn’t more motivation, it’s a fresh reminder that we do not belong to ourselves anymore. Mary gave her whole self in response to God’s revealed will. If you’ve carried a baby you know they don’t just take over your belly. Your hair and skin change, and over time your breathing and sleeping; you can start to feel like baby has taken over every square inch of you! But Mary did not belong to Mary. I do not belong to me. And you do not belong to yourself. We are His. Created for good works planned for us (Ephesians 2:10). Bought with a price and called to glorify God with our bodies (I Corinthians 6:20). Servants of Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 4:5). Romans 12:1 says, “With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him.” (Phillips translation) These truths rewrite the script of Biblical change and motivation.

Ownership by another person is almost always terrible news, but being owned by God is an entirely different matter. “It is on the basis of a solid conviction that He is both sovereign and loving that we commit ourselves to Him unconditionally, believing that what we leave behind is less than nothing compared to what we hope for.” – Elizabeth Elliot

Sally Lloyd Jones tells a story from the American Civil War of a Northerner who bought a young slave girl at a slave auction. As they left the auction the man turned to the girl and told her that she was free to go. Of course she was shocked and could hardly believe what he was saying to her. She asked if she was free to do what she wanted, say what she wanted, go where she wanted. He laughed and told her that she should go and do whatever she pleased. After looking into his face a long time she replied, “Then I will go with you.” Why would someone with freedom choose to follow a master again? Because she knows the heart of the Master. He has promised that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives (Psalm 23:6) He has reminded us that He did not even spare His own Son for us, so how could we doubt His goodness to us in the future? (Romans 8:32)

Mary’s “yes” to God brought heartache. She was told that a sword would pierce through her own soul (Luke 2:35). And yet Scripture records her spilling over with joy in Luke 1, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

Your own “yes” to God will probably be over matters less dramatic, but that same joy is ours for the taking! What trifling things, what perceived rights, what overgrown desires are holding you back today? Let Jesus have all of you. I know that may be old news for a mature Christian, but maybe I’m not alone in my need to hear it over and over again.

You don’t belong to You. In that lies joy, and what you do for joy, you can do forever.