Devotions
What motivates you?
“Therefore, encourage one another with these words.” – 1Thessalonians 4:18
Last
week we talked about the drive, and today we want to discuss
motivation. Though these two are sometimes used interchangeably, they mean
different things based on their definitions. The drive is more of an inner urge,
whereas motivation is the exterior force that pushes you to achieve your goals.
It is also called extrinsic motivation. So, what motivates people? There is
mainly one source of motivation: the reward, anything that gives a kind of
recognition and compensation that provides a sense of satisfaction of having
achieved a goal. It can be material as it can also be emotional, social,
and spiritual. However, motivation can also result from the fear of
punishment or being shamed as a failure. There is no better example of
motivation than how teachers did in our days. While in elementary schools, our
teachers would devise strategies to make us work harder and achieve the best
performance we could. These would include small gifts, a teacher’s
note that said well done, etc. They might have looked small but they kept the
energy to perform very high. As we would learn later in physics, a moving
object will lose its momentum and eventually stop if no other force is applied.
That is motivation in my simple definition: the applied force to keep the
momentum, to keep us moving forward.
Christian life is a journey; life in general is
a walk for believers as for unbelievers. It is very easy to get tired and want
to abandon. This is true for everyone; otherwise, Paul would not have seen the
need to warn believers of the possibility of losing heart (Galatians 6:9). When
such times happen, when you feel like you are losing heart, you need something
to strengthen you and give you the courage to carry on. Why does a moving
object lose momentum? Because as it moves, it encounters a resistance force
that slowly but constantly decreases its speed. Unless there is another force
superior to the resistance force that is applied to it, the moving object will
completely stop at some point. As we move in our Christian walk, we encounter
resistance forces all the way, challenges, disappointments, tests, and tribulations
that eat away our strength to carry on. They erode our commitment and
determination to reach the place we want to reach, do the things we want to do
and serve the way we want to serve. If we do not have other sources of
strength, we might even end up abandoning the way.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about that. When
such times come, encourage one another with “such words”. What words? Words of
hope from the living God. As Christians, we must be immersed in the Word and
draw our strength from it in our times of trouble and when we feel like
fainting. When tired, motivate yourself to keep going because those who trust
in the Lord shall renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31). When you fall, says that
I will rise again (Micah 7:8). When the devil tells you it’s the end you tell
yourself my redeemer lives (Job 19:25) and what he said he will also accomplish.
How was David able to strengthen himself in the Lord? He did not wait for
someone to tell him the Word. He spoke the Word to himself. He reminded himself
what God said about him, that he will be king, that God will never abandon him,
that God cannot lie, and many other promises. So, he told his heart to take
courage and trust in the Lord who will always be with him. Encourage yourself
with the Word and encourage one another with the Word. That is our source of
motivation to keep the momentum! Hebrews 10:35 says “do not cast away your
confidence, which has great reward.” It is that confidence in the Word
that gives us the strength to keep going.
Posted : Feb 16, 2026