What is the reason behind your motivation? Why do you pursue the things you pursue? What is it that drives you? What is foremost in your mind throughout each day? For whose sake do you get up each morning and do what you do?
Something or someone keeps us going. For those of us who are parents, often it is our children. For those who are newly in love, it is often the person you are in love with. For some, it is the passion they have for their work. We all have a reason to strive on with our lives.
The vast majority of us choose worldly reasons as our driving force. That is not say our children, the people we love, or our work should not be important to us. Yet some of us make them all we care about, which leaves us with little or no reason to continue with our lives, if they are taken from us.
Having lost both my Dad and my Step-Dad, I felt the loss and mourned their passing. Having lost my job, one I had held for nearly nine years, I was initially shocked, then confused. The loss of my job also ended my thirty-two-year career in the IT profession. However, none of those losses caused me to lose my reason for living. Were they hard? You bet! But they did not consume me.
What was behind my desire to continue moving forward with my life? The desire to continue living the plan God has for my life. My reason for living is to do the will of God. Now, don’t misunderstand, I fail at times. However, I know God uses my failures to grow me into the person He wants me to be.
What can you learn from this? My hope is you learn the same thing Paul wanted each of us to learn when he wrote today’s passage. He wants us to do everything for the sake of the gospel. He wants us to put Jesus and His story first in our lives. He wants us to use the story of Jesus to be the driving force in our lives. He wants us to share in the blessings that come by doing so.
I pray we all make Jesus our driving force. I pray we put Jesus first in our lives. I pray each one of us will filter our choices in life through the gospel. Care about others. Make the gospel your reason for living. Rely on Jesus to get you through hard times. Put Jesus first. Filter your life through Him. Share in the blessings.
1 Corinthians 9:23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Marty Pressey 