What’s Your Motivation?

by Anna Deckert

Is my motivation my own eyes?

The book of Judges is a fascinating look into Biblical history. The cycle of disobedience to God’s law, judgment, repentance, and grace that permeates the book feels dumbfoundingly familiar. I’ll never forget a devotional that was given to close a lecture on the historicity of the Samson narrative, which is recorded in the book of Judges. While used by God, Samson consistently let the things that pleased his eyes rule his choices. He was not seeking God’s desires but his own. The last questions of the devotional cut to my heart: “What’s your motivation? Is it your own eyes?”

Local, national, and international news make it clear that mankind’s own desires still dominate our motivations, especially apart from God. To this day, nations hold up gods fashioned by their own hands to justify cruelty and blasphemy. The final refrain of Judges continues to echo around us, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). And the results are the same as in Biblical times. Following the lusts of our eyes and desires of our hearts leads to ruin, hurt, and sin. 

Walking in humility.

So, in a world dominated by ways to “live your truth,” how do Christians instead turn our eyes to God? How do we align our actions with what is right in God’s eyes? As I’ve participated in women’s Bible studies, sat in church, and studied Scripture on my own, the theme of humility keeps rising to the surface. Even when the Bible doesn’t specifically use the word “humility,” we see that God consistently desires soft hearts that acknowledge Him as the source of all wisdom, goodness, and truth.

Proverbs 11:2 directly states, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” In the NIV Study Bible there is a helpful note on this verse stating that “the proud usurp the place of God.” The word “usurp” paints such a vivid picture of what I do when I seek what is right in my own eyes. I am attempting to take over the glory that is rightfully God’s. As a child of God, I should be joyously seeking His renown. That should be my motivation. The primary way I’ve felt the Lord change my motivations is through humbly seeking Him in prayer. If I want to see rightly, my days should be steeped in prayers for wisdom and prayers that God would more closely align my desires with His glory. 

Bringing it home.

In the book of Judges, God’s desire for His people was their good and His glory. This would be accomplished by submitting to God as their king and obeying His commands in the law. By seeking what was right in their own eyes, they were shouting that they thought they knew what was better for them. As a mom of a toddler, my rules for my son are for his good. Eating only fruit snacks and applesauce would not be in his best interest. Or more seriously, running away from me in public when I say, “Come,” could end disastrously. Hopefully, the discipline we give as his parents to help him see the bigger picture, the bigger good for his life, will allow our son to trust and appreciate God’s vision for his life also. Like my sweet toddler, there are countless areas where I need to stop and follow God’s good purposes instead of running after my own desires. 

I am encouraged in my walk with the Lord as I remember the song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace.

May it be that, more and more, we turn to God and seek His motivations instead of our own. And that our lives changed by God would be a beacon of light to our watching world.