First posted January 13, 2009:
I get the opportunity to do a fair bit of motivational speaking. I feel privileged to use the platform I have to try and share something positive with other people. Jerry Bridges shares some interesting things about motivation in his book The Pursuit of Holiness.
In the chapter Holiness and Our Wills Bridges has this to say: "It is the will that ultimately makes each individual choice of whether we will sin or obey. It is the will that chooses to yield to temptation, or to say no" (p125).
Bridges goes on to explain how reason and emotions both affect and influence the will. He suggests that pre-fall man's emotion, reason, and will all worked harmoniously and that their direction was always God-ward. Post-fall, these faculties are in constant conflict and need to be re-directed; we need to "renew our minds(Romans 12:2), to set our affections on things above(Colossians 3:1), and to submit our wills to God(James 4:7)" (p126). He also suggest that we need to make every effort to help our wills to choose rightly. We do this, with help from the Holy Spirit, by influencing the will through our minds with Godly reasoning and through our emotions with Godly motivation. Scripture becomes of paramount importance as the source for righteous reasoning and motivation.
And this gets me to my point about motivational speaking. I try to influence people with my words to choose to do something positive whether it be persevere through difficulties or buy into teamwork. In my talks I try to engage their minds and inspire and motivate so they can influence their wills. Thus, hopefully they can affect their wills with their reason and emotions in order to make good choices. I think I'm think I'm on the right track there.
But here is the problem; I have the Holy Spirit enabling me when I pursue holiness whereas they may not have the Enabler helping them. So, can I really expect to have that significant of an impact? I'm not sure. But I'll keep trying.
I'm grateful we have The Helper, the Holy Spirit, to aid, lead, encourage, teach, and strengthen us in our own pursuit of holiness.
Bridges goes on to explain how reason and emotions both affect and influence the will. He suggests that pre-fall man's emotion, reason, and will all worked harmoniously and that their direction was always God-ward. Post-fall, these faculties are in constant conflict and need to be re-directed; we need to "renew our minds(Romans 12:2), to set our affections on things above(Colossians 3:1), and to submit our wills to God(James 4:7)" (p126). He also suggest that we need to make every effort to help our wills to choose rightly. We do this, with help from the Holy Spirit, by influencing the will through our minds with Godly reasoning and through our emotions with Godly motivation. Scripture becomes of paramount importance as the source for righteous reasoning and motivation.
And this gets me to my point about motivational speaking. I try to influence people with my words to choose to do something positive whether it be persevere through difficulties or buy into teamwork. In my talks I try to engage their minds and inspire and motivate so they can influence their wills. Thus, hopefully they can affect their wills with their reason and emotions in order to make good choices. I think I'm think I'm on the right track there.
But here is the problem; I have the Holy Spirit enabling me when I pursue holiness whereas they may not have the Enabler helping them. So, can I really expect to have that significant of an impact? I'm not sure. But I'll keep trying.
I'm grateful we have The Helper, the Holy Spirit, to aid, lead, encourage, teach, and strengthen us in our own pursuit of holiness.
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