The first Five Minute Friday of 2018! Each Friday my writing stems from a word prompt. Five minutes, one word prompt. The prompt this week is … Motivate.
Great word for the new year as merely the word raises the questions, “What is providing you a reason to live with or for a cause? What moves you to take action?”
“My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.” (Galatians 5:16, MSG)
We are people living in our human flesh and so being, we will struggle with selfishness. We will default to thinking in terms of ourselves. Certainly society, in particular social media, will move us to promote ourselves, get ahead, and seek achieve more.
Yet God calls us to be motivated by His Spirit and to be other-minded.
This verse brought to mind how the answer to every question put to children in Sunday School is “Jesus”. Paul reminds us of much the same.
Only by the working of the Holy Spirit in us will we be motivated to live in loving service to God and others. God’s Spirit will accomplish three things in us:
- We will live freely. We will not be tied to our possessions. We will live freely and give freely.
- We will be animated. Our lives will be marked with joy, embracing life each day.
- We will be motivated by God’s Spirit. Our daily lifestyle and all that we do will be purposeful as we follow God’s leading.
Paul gave wise counsel …
Live motivated by God’s Spirit.
Today I am joining … Five Minute Friday and Faith On Fire and Faith Filled Friday and Faith ”˜N Friends .
Thanks for not only sharing the verse but for breaking it down to how you choose to manifest it in your life. It’s motivating 🙂
My one word for the year is #Focus and my desire is to live more motivated this year. Blessings!
Joanne, I love the upbeat tone of your post! I’ve never picked up on those three aspects of living that Galatians 5:16 brings out. I love how you broke it down here. Each of these three things are great descriptors for living life well. What a great first FMF post! Have a beautiful weekend.
I appreciate and was encouraged by your comments, Jeanne. It helps me when I break Scripture down to better moved to action. Have a wonderful weekend!
I like that translation of Galatians 5:16, and it’s true that it’s important to make sure God’s Spirit is our motivation. It’s far too easy to be influenced by others around us or by society. We’re neighbours at FMF today- hope you have a great weekend!
Reading Scripture in a lesser read version (for me) often sheds new light and depth of meaning. Familiarity can often be a “thief” 🙂
Thank you for sharing this translation of the verse. It seems like a good one to add to my list of surrendered verses.
It’s interesting how a different version brings depth of meaning.
Yes this truth and great way to look at how to be motivated…Yet God calls us to be motivated by His Spirit and to be other-minded.
More “other-minded” will mean being more like Jesus, who was always thinking of others, even when they were not thinking of Him. May He make us more like Him.
Love your thoughts for the year!! Living animated, motivated, and free speaks to my heart! Blessings as you seek this!
Wonderful! Blessings to you.
YES YES YES.
Love this truth…motivated by God’s Spirit!
How nice to compare it to a children’s Sunday school lesson. Sometimes it’s easier to learn by teaching.
Hi Joanne,
Love this. And yes we are motivated by the Holy Spirit for sure. Praying into His Word every day – we know that He is with us guiding us on.
Blessings,
Janis
#24 FMF
Good morning Joanne, I am an evangelist. Sharing His truth and love here on Social Media is one way to serve Him. I shared your Lulu videos. I will keep watch for more of your tweets!
Thank you, Julie, especially for sharing The Lulu Tree video. I so appreciate you doing so. Blessings!