When was the last time you did something "good" out of love for Jesus?

I was just praying yesterday about wanting to love Jesus more.  On Our Daily Bread today there was the story about a husband who cleaned the dishes because he wanted to show his wife how much he loved her.  That is amazing.  I struggle with feeling motivated by guilt as for my reason to do a lot of things. I am praying now that my motivation will be propelled by my love for Jesus and not because I feel guilted into doing the right thing which is also disguised as people pleasing for me.

  The bible study I am doing: The Search for Significance Workbook says,
"Guild causes a loss of self-respect.  It withers the human spirit and eats away at our personal significance.  Guilt is a strong motivation, playing on our fears of failure and rejection; therefore, it can never ultimately build, encourage, or inspire us in our desire to live for Christ.  Our guilt may be prompted by many factors: poor parental modeling of Christ's love and forgiveness, divorce, neglect, a particular past sin, or the emphasis some believers place on the "oughts" and "shoulds" of Christianity.  Perhaps some people think that if they don't use guilt for motivation, we won't do anything.  Guilt may motivate us for a short while.  The long-term results of grace best motivate us because they come from the inside out".

Thankfully, as Christians, we are released from the law and condemnation: "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1



This is powerful people.  Love you

Corinthians

I'm reading through 1 Corinthians right now.  Paul is laying out some basics about the Christian life.  Paul is so humble!  He has learned this as he lives for God.  I'm going to skip to Chapter 3.  Here he lays the Foundations for Living:
Get rid of strife and jealousy-the human flesh tendencies (1 Cor. 3:3)
Realize that God is the One who grows us and not ourselves.(1 Cor.3:7)
We are rewarded according to our own labor-we are God's co-workers (1 Cor. 3:9).
Remember that Jesus laid the first foundation (1 Cor. 3:10).
Do your best because your work will be tested (1 Cor. 3:13).
I am holy, because He says we are temples of God and the Spirit of God dwells in me (1 Cor. 3:16)
Do not boast in men, for all things belong to God (1 Cor 3:21-23).

Faith

Lately, I've been noticing that I am hearing a lot about faith.  In particular, there was a quote that I heard from Martin Luther King Jr.: Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase...
During my high school days, every year on MLK day, we had to go to school.  However, we didn't have our regular classes...it was an entire day filled with learning about the equal rights movements during the time of MLK.  We watched heart wrenching videos of blacks getting tortured, listened to speakers talk to our school and watched the popular speech of Martin Luther King Jr.  At the time, I wasn't always in to being there, but today I am glad for the education I had during 6 years of MLK days I had when I was at Baylor.   Anyways, so to hear the quote by MLK it makes me realize that he must really know what faith is like.  I mean, he REALLY went through some hard times!  Even death!  Alot like a lot of other Christian followers went through for living out their faith.
I am in awe of people who go through something and through faith come out stronger.  You can see it in their character and in their faces.  So, thanks MLK jr. for showing us what that looks like.  You spoke up for what you knew was the truth. 

Pride

Proverbs 11:2: When pride comes, then comes disgrace.
I think I have lived this verse many, many times.  I'll take my pride into consideration before I speak a word that might cause someone to look at me differently.  So, mostly fear drives my pride to get bigger it seems.  I have a perfect example: My husband was training on the Ocoee River for the first time this past summer.  He had finished his training on the middle section of the river but still had a little bit of training left on the Upper section.  I am considered a senior guide because I have been guiding on the river since 2003.  So, on this particular day, I was given a Full River trip that included guiding both the Upper and the Middle.  Bill and Stephanie, both rookie guides, were going to ghost-guide my trip.  Which meant that they would guide for me while I was in the raft.  So, Bill was to guide the Upper section since he had a little more training to do on that section.  When we got to the Upper put-in, I thought to myself that I might need to tell Bill about the beginning and how you must enter at a particular angle to avoid the rocks downstream.  Instead, I got fearful.  I feared that Bill might think I was being bossy and a know-it-all especially since I am his wife.  I didn't want to appear demeaning.  So, I gave in to my fear and didn't say anything even though I had pride in my rafting capabilities and knew what I was talking about because of my guiding experience.  However, I was protecting my own pride by not saying anything at all.  I wanted Bill to think I was wonderful because I didn't tell him what to do.  To make a long story short, we hit those rocks and flipped our entire raft.  Everyone was okay, but we were all shaken up.  Especially me.  I had spent so much time protecting my own Pride when in reality it was only driven by fear. 
I was disgraced by my Pride that I let it keep me from speaking up. I had trusted in myself that I was making the right decision, when I know that if I had taken a second to ask God what he wanted me to do, then I know He would have given me the strength to speak up.
He wants us to, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

Thank the Lord for new beginnings!