“This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did.”

Exodus 40:16

If I got a dollar every time I heard someone say “I just lost motivation”…oh boy, I would be rich. Whether it is a sport, hobby, project, job, or lifestyle, thousands upon thousands of people quit everyday because of a lack of motivation to finish what they started. And sadly, far too often, we see this in the lives of Christians all over the world. Day after day, people give up on reading their Bible, praying, going to church, or trying to acquire a Christ-like character. And honestly, for a very long time, I was one of those quitters.

I would try to live this “Christian Lifestyle” so that I could say how great it was to live for Jesus and how good I am because I did it so perfectly. My motivation was not to please God out of love, but to prove to others that I was in fact a great Christian with a great life and I hoped God would see my reputation and be overjoyed by that. However, every…single…time…I failed. I would do it for a little bit, feel on fire for Jesus, post about it on social media, see that no one really cared, face a struggle in life, lose the fire, become numb , not know how to get it back, then eventually give up. This was a constant cycle I found myself going through every few months.

However at the beginning of this year, I wanted change. True transformation that not only wiped my heart clean of pride, but then put on as much pride-resistant spray as I could, that being, a nice thick layer of humility that absorbed deep into the core of my heart. I wanted to know what it was like to live a life where the seasons I encountered did not effect my faith. If you have heard me tell my story, you know the past 2 years or so insanely impacted my life as I set out to focus strictly on the Lord, giving all my symptoms of loneliness and fear of failure to God. But that does not mean it was an easy two years. As I did that, I experienced so many days, and months, where I wanted to give up as I saw no fruit in my life. In fact, I did sometimes. I stopped reading my Bible. Praying went from daily to weekly. And my belief that I would never experience God’s presence again was very high. I lost motivation so many times. And as a result, I stopped living the way God tells us brings the most life.

But then of course there were times where everything felt great again. The fire seemed to be rekindled. I would find that motivation. Every few months, something good like me getting the chance to preach at youth group, or church camp would happen, or I would be encouraged by those around me. This is what reset the cycle. It’s what would make me remember why I set out to focus on the Lord in the first place. But as I said, it was a cycle, or season if that’s better fitting.

Now I am not depreciating the impact each season left on me. Every time, I would grow, or learn something new. And as I look back, although I always failed at staying disciplined, I left a little stronger. And thankfully, God brought me this phrase of “discipline over motivation” before the most recent cycle went downhill.

I honestly forgot where I heard this, or got the idea of this phrase, but I feel like it is too good to not share as I have recently been seeing it’s value in my life and those around me.

I chose to share the verse from Exodus 40 because it perfectly captures the kind of obedience we ought to have as servants of the Lord. I encourage you to read the full chapter, but in case you don’t have the time, or attention, I’ll give you some of the juicy points I was able to pull from it as I read it during my quiet time last week.

Exodus 40 is about God giving Moses the commands to build the Temple in which the Jews would eventually worship in and where the presence of God would be. This was still during their time of wondering in the desert. The beginning of this chapter is not the most interesting story one could read, but it is important. God basically gave Moses the Lego Instructions book for the Temple. Except, what is so amazing about this, is that it was audible. Imagine building a Lego set but doing it completely off your memory. As a master builder myself, “impossible”, I would think. But the fact that Moses did it, just shows us that if we make our hearts so sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we too can understand and remember what exactly God is trying to tell us.

Moving on to the next part of the chapter, we come to the verse highlighted at the beginning of this blog. Moses did it. He obeyed the Lord and the rest of the section is dedicated to explaining Moses’ construction piece by piece. And as you read it, you will see “as the Lord had commanded Moses”, seven times. After every step, scripture clarifies Moses did EXACTLY what God commanded. Now I don’t know what Moses was feeling or how long this took Him to build, but I can only imagine that he was not exploding with joy and excitement every second of this project. But nonetheless, he obeyed.

Moses chose discipline over motivation.

As life throws good, bad, and ugly days at us, it is inevitable that we experience moments of exhaustion, pain, or boredom. But I would like to encourage you with this.

Making a daily schedule for myself where I included praying, devotionals, and reading the Bible was the best decision ever. I once heard someone say “You will not always stay on track. Sometimes you’re going to miss a day, just don’t miss two.” And wow. I totally forgot who told me that but it has been the kick in the butt that I needed as I realized I forgot to spend time with God the day before. Now I’m not going to lie. There were times this year where I missed a LOT more than 2 days. But this desire to choose discipline over motivation forced me to get back on track.

If I could give you one phrase that offers so much relief, it is this: God knows we are humans, so make sure you know that too.

We will NEVER be perfect. You need to humble yourself enough to realize that, because until you do, you won’t realize how much you need Jesus. With that humility, comes the understanding of where true life comes from. In the process of obedience and discipline, I have realized the clear difference that the days I spend with God have against the days I spend without Him.

And honestly, because of the way my brain decides to function, I experience a LOT of days where I sadly have no motivation. But the story in Exodus could not reflect those days any better. At the very end of the chapter, AFTER Moses did what God commanded Him to, there is a section with the title “The Glory of The Lord”. It talks about how God’s presence comes upon the temple (the fruit of Moses’ obedience…mmm so cool!!) and remained there day and night. Ahh CHILLS.

What a beautiful picture portrayed here. God saw Moses follow His commands step by step and He did not hesitate to reveal His Glory to Him as a result of His discipline. I honestly never realized how often this happens in my life until I read this. Recently there have been many days of numbness or exhaustion, but EVERY…SINGLE…TIME that I read my Bible anyways and prayed even though I was mumbling over my words because I was so exhausted, God revealed the most perfect little feelings of peace, joy, hope, and love to me. It may not have come until the end of the day or even a few days later, but it always came.

God remained faithful. Sometimes it was through songs, overhearing other people, reading scripture, or even just re-reading some old prayers I wrote a long time ago. I found reason to CHOOSE joy and hope regardless of how bad my day was going.

One of the main things that inspired this blog was what I heard from two girls in the high school group I lead at church.

As we went around with prayer requests, they asked for the fire they feel for Jesus to never die down. What a beautiful prayer to have. But from experience and the testimonies of others, I knew that prayer would never come true. The fire, or excitement, we have to read our Bibles, or passionately live for Jesus every second of our day will not always be as lit as we’d hope. Certain experiences can certainly make it grow, but scripture tells us our faith will experience trials (James 1:2-4). But it also tells us to let those trials strengthen us, not break us. So what I felt was necessary to remind them and any of you who have this same prayer, is to pray for strength and an ear for what the Lord is telling us to do. Because ultimately, what we feel is so easily effected by this world, but the commands of God are not.

With that being said, I hope you understand the importance of choosing discipline over motivation. Remembering that your feelings should not determine your faith. I heard this song the other day by Maverick City Worship (lol when am I not listening to them) called “Million Little Miracles”. It was honestly so sweet to hear. I was walking to my car to go to work as I heard it and even though I heard it before, it hit different because I was so tired and annoyed but it convicted me so much to stop and realize there are far more blessings than things to be bitter about.

So, as you go about your day, and continue on this journey with God, I pray you never forget the little miracles He makes happen. I pray you realize that all good things require a choice to be made. So I pray you choose discipline, joy, hope, love, compassion, and peace. I pray you gain a sensitive heart and ear towards the Lord so that you can clearly follow where He leads. And I pray you never forget how madly God loves you and desires to grow with you, but will not intrude on your life if you don’t let Him in.

Seek His heart and remember that you can never experience true life if you are away from the One who created it.