Your life and work will rise or fall based on your motivation. The reasons behind why you get up each morning and go through the day will direct your steps and eventual outcomes. Most men don’t think too much about their motivation—it’s a vague sense of purpose. Marriage, family, kids, finances, friendships, career, faith… somewhere among all those thoughts is the core of who we are and what we do. Movation, though, is the internal drive that compels you to act, to persist in behaviors that are leading you toward a goal.
Purpose in life is more important than doing certain things, or having certain attitudes or thoughts. When we fail to nail down our motivation, we live a life filled with false starts, tangents, failures, dissatisfaction. We become wanderers. This is a danger personally and spiritually. King David expressed this sentiment in Psalm 119:10, “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.” The old hymn is right—“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love…”[1]
King David’s Psalm also reminds us that the heart of our motivation is found in following God. Seeking God and obeying His commands sets a firm foundation for everything else in life and work. Does your “internal drive” move you toward God? King David was described as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). In our modern vernacular we might take this to mean, “A chip off the old block,” or one who looks and sounds a lot like God. But the reality is much deeper—David had a passionate desire to know and follow God. He wanted his heart, those desires and wants and motivations, to mirror God and be like God’s.
If you Google, “How do I find my motivation?” you’ll find a shallow AI answer along the lines of mindfulness, self-discovery and time with nature. That’s a flawed methodology. A man’s motivation is both common and unique—common in the sense of that which spiritually motivates all Christ-followers, and unique in how God created him and gifted him for life and work. The real way to understand what motivates you is in these key actions:
Understand your identity. To determine motivation, you must first know that you were made, created. If you are just happenstance, a collection of molecules, a clump of cells that somehow became conscious—well, your motive can be little more than self-preservation, and at best, self-pleasure. This is the majority of people in the world. Once their food and shelter needs are met, most pursue little beyond self-interest. They live in a world full of “my’s”—my wife, my kids, my marriage, my home, my car, my job, my vacation, my retirement.
If however you were created, then two additional questions arise—who created you, and for what purpose? The Bible teaches that God created us for a reason, which is first and foremost to know God. 1 Peter 2:9 describes those who follow God: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” And what are we as God’s “holy nation” to do? Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” In Christ there is identity! The Bible teaches we are God’s people, made by Him for good works that He has prepared for us. Outside of God there is nothing beyond ourselves. In God, we have a meaning bigger than ourselves.
Be reminded of your values. Not only does motivation help you stick to what you really want to do, but it also helps you determine how you want to do it. The same God Who created you also imbued you with a sense of values—behaviors and attitudes that together form a sense of what is good. The Bible gives us values from cover to cover. A short list of them is found in Galatians 5:22-23, commonly known as the Fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”. Many people have a desire to live “good lives”, but just as you must define who you are, you also need to know what is good.
This too is defined by God. Psalm 100:5 teaches, “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” God was good from the beginning, and defines what is good. Our mandate, then, is good works done in a good way. This underlying spiritual purpose makes it possible to have a lasting, meaningful motivation for our lives and work. It’s possible to be strongly motivated, and yet work without values—no patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. We know these kinds of men, who are relentlessly driven, and yet hard-hearted. Their motives are misplaced.
Pursue areas where God uniquely shaped you. Once you understand you were created by God for a purpose, and that you should live and work with personal values leading to goodness defined by the Creator, then you are in a position to determine the unique areas that motivate you. What are your “good works” done in a “good way?” Your interests, talents, abilities, skills, experiences, passions, pastimes, relationships—all of these shape your motivation. Realize now that biblical motivation is the tangible drive that comes from spiritual underpinnings.
You can be driven by self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, self-pleasure, self-sufficiency. In these motivations, all roads lead back to you. But if you understand you are first a spiritual being created for a reason by a holy God, that godly foundation leads to a powerful, Christ-centered drive. In all areas, you can seek to be more like Christ as you serve Him, know Him, understand Him, represent Him to others. This is where uniqueness and purpose meet to create true motivation.
A man good with numbers is motivated to help others keep their budgets well. A man equipped for labor is motivated to build beautiful houses for people to live in. A man skilled as a doctor is motivated to make his patients healthier. A man talented in music is motivated to lead in the worship band at his church. A motivated Christ-follower doesn’t just use his abilities for the sake of his own benefit, but for the benefit of others, and to the glory of God. A spiritual drive makes him more prepared to suffer setbacks and challenges, as he is motivated by the sometimes difficult tasks of godly good.
What motivates you? Begin not with who you are, but with whose you are. Then consider the values that the Creator equipped you to work within. And with these you are free to do what you were born to do—fulfilling a purpose bigger than yourself.
[1] https://hymnary.org/text/come_thou_fount_of_every_blessing
Your life and work will rise or fall based on your motivation. The reasons behind why you get up each morning and go through the day will direct your steps and eventual outcomes. Movation is the internal drive that compels you to act.