What Motivates You?

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”
Zechariah 7:4–7
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What Motivates You?
Why do you go to church? Is it for the disciple of it, though painful at first it feels better afterwards? Is it for the image you are crafting of yourself as a godly person? Is it a matter of culture, after all you parents and grandparents went so this is just what you do. Or is an insurance policy, making sure to cover all the bases in life, just in case? After the people come to God for answers on what they needed to do, the Lord first asks His own questions before providing an answer. Zechariah is directed to speak the Lord’s Words not only to the Bethel delegation but also to a much wider audience. What they heard was more than just an answer to the original question. He asks, “Was it for Me that you fasted?” What motivates you in your spiritual life? Is it selfish interests rather than a desire to honor God? God questions whether the people’s daily activities and joyful celebrations were not also motivated solely by the natural desire to satisfy themselves, with no thought given to Him, the Giver of all good things. If we take stock of our faith and life and find that we have fallen short and the resulting shortage causes us grief in our hearts, then we are worshipping God properly. We are tearing our hearts and not simply our garments. And with torn hearts the Gospel comes to us and sooths and heals. The blood of Christ covers us and we are made whole once more.