Repeat it!

Have you ever done anything that defied common sense?  Please don’t ever ask Mr. Bill this about me!  He will gladly repeat some of my most illogical moves.  His favorite is my ongoing battle with gravity.  I always lose!

 

Do you ever consider your motives?  Much of my adult life I’ve battled my weight and looking back, I was primarily motivated by how I looked.  In more recent years, however, the motive (or lack of it) is primarily about my health.  Paul presents the motive we are to have in everything: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14, ESV).  To be obediently watchful, steadfast, and strong are worthy goals yet not enough – each must be motivated by love! Something I learned recently – as we are obedient, we can become puffed up even before God!  Oh My or Oh Me?  Paul describes love: “… love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant …” (1 Corinthians 13:4).  When we read all of Chapter 13, we see this love-motive is the purest and holiest of motives.  If we have any braggin' rights at all, it is in Christ Whose entire earthly life was the perfect and full revelation of God's love for us.  Our obedience to Christ cannot ride a high-horse!  What joy, however, to rest knowing we've been watchful-firm-strong in our obedience and that our motive was nothing more than to honor & obey & lift the Name of Christ to Its rightful place.  What a Light shines forth when our motives are single-focused, pure, and rich in devotion to The One Who laid aside everything for us. This is worth repeating in word and deed!