Don't Look to Motivation, Look to the Holy Spirit to Move

Have you ever noticed how many who call themselves by the name of Christ (that was worded that way for a reason), post inspiring, encouraging, or motivational stories and thoughts, but generally don't post much on Scripture? This is not a new trend, but a cycle that repeats when our faith is shallow. It seems large from the outside, a lake or an ocean miles and miles deep, but when you dive in to this form of Spirituality, it is, at best, ankle deep. My warning is this: Don't dive head first in to shallow Christianity, you may hit your head! I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating: Many people who call themselves Christians would rather be motivated, encouraged, or inspired by others rather than moved by the Holy Spirit. Christianity that is void of Scripture, and even Christianity that is filled with Scripture but void of the Holy Spirit is shallow, self-driven, and doomed to burn someone out. God moves through His word, it is living and breathing (see Hebrews 4:12) and will not return void (see Isaiah 55:11), and His word is fueled by the Holy Spirit. When we remove the Word and the Holy Spirit from our inspiration, motivation, and edification, we create a shallow Spirituality that gently loves people to hell, and though it helps people in the here and now, runs the risk of sending people to hell with a full stomach. Christian, everything we do and say should be intentional, submitted to the Holy Spirit, and done by His power. From our marriages, parenting and friendships, to our entertainment, going out in the community, and even our getting up and laying down, all things should be in submission to the Holy Spirit. Shallow Christianity says "look what I did, or he did, or she did," Holy Spirit filled Christianity says "look what the God of the Universe is doing." We need a dependency on God and His word, and that submission leads us with Power through the Holy Spirit who lives inside us. Everything else is man made, sugar coated, and dangerous to your Spiritual Health and the eternity of those around you. Church, Stop wading in the shallow end and dive in to all the God has for you. Seek to submit, daily, to bear your cross daily, to deny yourself and follow Jesus, daily. Romans 8:1-11 English Standard Version (ESV)

Life in the Spirit

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[a] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[d] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Footnotes:

1. Romans 8:1 Some manuscripts add who walk not according to the flesh (but according to the Spirit)

2. Romans 8:2 Some manuscripts me

3. Romans 8:3 Or and as a sin offering

4. Romans 8:11 Some manuscripts lack Jesus