Doing All for the Glory of God and Discerning One's Motives

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
R

ROSSELLA

Guest
#1
#1
Lately, I've been thinking of 1 Corinthians 10:31, which commands us to do all for the glory of God. I know a big part of doing things for God's glory comes from having the right motivations. However, a lot of things I do without even thinking about, then when I try to go back to analyze what motivated me to do something, I can't remember, or am not sure what motivated me. I am constantly psychoanalyzing myself, then second guessing my conclusions. I've been praying for God's guidance, that He would motivate me to do things for His glory instead of my own, but I still find it next to impossible to discern my motives. I was wondering if anyone else either does the same thing or has struggled with this in the past and, if so, could he/she share what helps/helped him/her?
 
J

JustWhoIAm

Guest
#2
#2
Sounds exhausting.

Tension produces results.
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#3
#3
Do good. Don't worry...as we move closer to God, so does our will conform to His.
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#4
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#4
ROSSELLA said:
Lately, I've been thinking of 1 Corinthians 10:31, which commands us to do all for the glory of God. I know a big part of doing things for God's glory comes from having the right motivations. However, a lot of things I do without even thinking about, then when I try to go back to analyze what motivated me to do something, I can't remember, or am not sure what motivated me. I am constantly psychoanalyzing myself, then second guessing my conclusions. I've been praying for God's guidance, that He would motivate me to do things for His glory instead of my own, but I still find it next to impossible to discern my motives. I was wondering if anyone else either does the same thing or has struggled with this in the past and, if so, could he/she share what helps/helped him/her?
Click to expand...
I don't think I've had this issue arise in my life. I might suggest perhaps you are obsessing with this one thing, when maybe you'd be better off moving on to other things.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#5
#5
ROSSELLA said:
Lately, I've been thinking of 1 Corinthians 10:31, which commands us to do all for the glory of God. I know a big part of doing things for God's glory comes from having the right motivations. However, a lot of things I do without even thinking about, then when I try to go back to analyze what motivated me to do something, I can't remember, or am not sure what motivated me. I am constantly psychoanalyzing myself, then second guessing my conclusions. I've been praying for God's guidance, that He would motivate me to do things for His glory instead of my own, but I still find it next to impossible to discern my motives. I was wondering if anyone else either does the same thing or has struggled with this in the past and, if so, could he/she share what helps/helped him/her?
Click to expand...
It's such a tricky thing.

The commandments are these:
[h=1]Mark 12:30-31(ESV)[/h][FONT=&quot]30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”[/FONT]

And yet, even when we try for that, we go right back to focusing on ourselves. (Did I do that for love or for some other motive?) The focus is forever on God, and only he can give us that. The second we stop to see how we're doing to the point of not remembering if we did or didn't, we no longer have to go back to see if we did or didn't. We just had a moment of "didn't" right there.

That too is our sinful nature getting the upper hand on us. It comes down to loving self over God or others. You're not crazy. This is how we grow in Christ. This is also how we fail for Christ. You've reached the point of seeing the battle. Most never see even that, so it is good you've gone this far. The battle doesn't end in this lifetime. The best we get is to aim for more and more outward love, and less and less inward love. And that only comes through God by not focusing on how well we're doing.

Complicated, ain't it? But God works through us more and more throughout our lives.

An old teacher summed it up well, "Cheer up! You're worse than you think." (Always a reason to seek God even more -- the cheery side. lol)
 
R

ROSSELLA

Guest
#6
#6
Thank all of you for you replies! Oh, and one thing I didn't mention before because I wasn't sure how common a struggle this is or if I was overthinking it, I have OCD, so I'm always overthinking or obsessing over something. If I try to stop obsessing altogether, I end up obsessing over obsessing.
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#7
#7
Does having a checklist help with OCD?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.