Sometimes it's so difficult to say what you mean, and mean what you say!
In a recent conversation, I was challenged on the topic of "heart motivation," when it comes to living out a life of faith, so I'll take Luther's question and ask:
"What does this mean?"
When grace enters in, when God's love is received, when God's Holy Spirit comes to dwell in a person...what changes? Do our motivations change?
I think of the disciples response in recalling their conversation with the resurrected Jesus as He joined them walking to Emmaus as they were just beginning to process what he had been teaching them - "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" LUKE 24:32
In our worship liturgy we sing, "create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me..." God's love and grace come to us as a free gift. When God's grace enters, it soothes and comfort, it heals, it works a transformation process from the inside out.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. EZEKIEL 36:25-27
God's love moves me from a motivation of personal gain to one of love, the kind of love that is always for the good of another. The words "shall no longer live for themselves..." ring in my mind...
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-15
Lord, I thank you for the unending grace that you pour out every day. May my life be a reflection of your grace so that others may experience your love and receive it for themselves.
I invite you to add your thoughts to the conversation!
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