what was the motivation of your heart when first coming to Jesus?

If when we first come to Jesus its because we see we are sinners, we realize that we have no other hope to escape the fires of hell except through Jesus then is that a selfish motive for coming to the Lord? If I come to the Lord because I do not want to suffer hell or isn't that just selfishness on my part and wouldn't that be sin? Shouldn't the motivation of our heart be instead that of love and a desire to be with Jesus? Of course I understand that we must see ourselves as the sinners we are, and we must repent and that is what God wants us to do but if that is the only motivation is to escape hells suffering is that enough??

rdg

Shouldn't the motivation of our heart be instead that of love and a desire to be with Jesus

Hi Solaveritas,
I think this is a good question.I can say that I came to Christ for purely self survival reasons!For this reason I have to be hugely sceptical about the sermon "ten shekels and a shirt".Im not sure anyone comes to Christ because they intially loved him.That followed.
Yours Staff

Like Pilgrim's Progress, "Flee from the wrath to come".

God commands people to repent not to love His Son.

Acts 17:30
times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Hi Staff, perhaps it's a good idea to listen to Ten Shekels and a Shirt again one of these days. Reidhead isn't talking about the motives of those who come to Christ but of those who preach the Gospel. Quite a difference really. This specific part of the sermon has had a huge impact on me. May you be blessed by it too. :)

I was eight years old and there was a special speaker at our church for a week of services. I remember one particular service in which the preacher gave a salvation message. I do not remember a specific motivation other than the dealing of the Holy Spirit with my heart. I remember sitting in the pew (I had never seriously given a thought to going to the front to seek God although I was raised in church) and beginning to weep as a sense of my own sinfulness and the drawing of the Holy Spirit came over me. My great aunt saw me and asked me if I wanted to go forward and have her pray with me. I did and after about 15 minutes of weeping, confessing my sinful condition and asking God to forgive me a realization of forgiveness settled on my heart. I felt cleaner than I had ever been before and a joy came to my heart.

I respectfully submit that trying to understand what motivates your heart at the time you are saved is not reliable for any kind of conclusion about salvation. Your ability to know yourself and more importantly, to understand what God has done in you by His Spirit, is extremely limited at the time of conversion. Your perspective of what occurred and why is interesting for curiosity sake but not useful and maybe even counter productive to helping others understand what occurred at conversion. Outward signs interpreted by each individual are not usually reliable to explain inward causes. Your testimony of your conversion is far less instructive than God's testimony of your conversion. He says....I will put the fear of Me within you ( put His Spirit in you) and cause you to obey Me ( including to obey the Gospel call/ invitation/ command ). This is the ministry of the new covenant in His Spirit.

I know when I became a believer my life seemed to be orchestrated because when it happened I intially didn't go forward for repentance. I went to find a friend of mine who had intially left. Next thing I knew I was in front of a counselor who took me through the Roman road. I didn't feel any different after all that and really was still a bit ignorant about sin. I know something happened for when I opened up a bible and began reading it something leap inside of me and I remember changings beginning to happen.

I got a religious spirit after that and the one thing I believe I lacked back then, and still do somewhat today is discipleship-whatever that does look like.

My goal back then was to reach out to those who hurt and the underground culture. I was very introverted and hated myself and life. Never did drugs, alcohol, sex etc. I knew better. I wanted to use my God to heal up those who were similiar to how I was and plant those seeds of Jesus within their souls.

My pledge is that if I found myself playing a religious game I would stop altogether or stop and reevaluate myself because I don't want to play church. I am not one to do things because others do it.

I have been away from church for 10 years but have wrestled within myself and with God for those years. Bitter internal struggles but the reality is it is me vs the outside world and God takes the punishment. These days this is where my life is and if I do see times where I can touch a persons life I will fill that void for Jesus' Name but I am not where I used to be. My motivation right now is to hear the Heart of God and become a part of Romans 12-2 which is something that I clunged to early on. Until I can hear the Heart of GOd in my own life I really can't do much else with the Gospel. With God I am just playing myself a fool. THat is how I see it.

Shouldn't the motivation of our heart be instead that of love and a desire to be with Jesus

How could I love and desire whom I don't know? Think about it!

i realize i worded my original post very poorly. Sorry I meant to say "shouldn't the motivation of our heart be that of love and a desire to be with Jesus once we are twice born and not just a desire to escape the fires of hell? After conversion shouldn't the motivation of our heart be changing as we grow in Him not just still be to save self from hell?

sorry about the confusion. thanks for the responses they have been helpful

rdg

i am sure for many of us, it was just to be escued out of our present circumstances such as drug use, stealing, but i believe it was something that we wanted God to do for us.

I highly doubt that most of us just wanted jesus because we loved him

I highly doubt that most of us just wanted jesus because we loved him

So is this your thinking even after coming to Christ, that its only about escaping the fires of hell? do you believe that as a person grows in their walk with Christ that motivation should and does change to a deep love and desire for Jesus?

rdg

No answer that is given will be a "noble", unselfish answer in man's eyes.

He takes the broken and puts them back together.

He takes dry bones and breathes life into them.

He takes lost and confused people and brings divine order into their lives.

I like His motivation for looking for me, instead. It was unselfish while mine was selfish. I really was not even looking for Him. He barged into my life (in a loving way).

If someone hands you a billion dollars, how could you not accept it? (meager human analogy).

I would say my motivation was for self not the glory of God. Rejected of men, He took me up. "Orphans" have a home with Him. What is the motivation of an orphan who wants out of the cold and rain? It is for self. As he lives in his new father's house, he learns about His love and His father's image is perfected in Him, little by little.

Mike

God gracefully brought me in 4 years ago as I was listening to a sermon late one night on marriage. It was a sermon by Paul Washer. He spoke briefly on God's sovereignty and I never finished the sermon as I felt I was standing in God's presence. With this revelation of God I then in the following moments realized who I was and for the first time in 32 years of calling myself a believer (active in the church) I was saved and changed. I believe all of this happened within a 15 to 20 minute time frame.

What bothered me for quite some time was trying to figure out why at 47 years old, and after 32 years in the church, the Lord would save me? I was not asking for salvation. 32 years prior I had accepted Christ but never truly repented or lived for Him. So I have come to the understanding that God was showing His mercy and grace in a measure that I will never be able to measure. For 32 years I held firmly to a false profession that would have resulted in hearing the most terrifying words any religious person could hear coming from the mouth of the All Knowing God," I DO NOT KNOW YOU". Isn't grace truly graceful.

Not sure there is a human answer to this question. The fact is scripture teaches that NO man can come to Christ unless the Father FIRST draws them. If you are saved it's because God initiated it, not you. Up until He initiated it (i.e. changed your heart from a heart of stone to one of flesh) you could NOT come to Christ. The motivation is that God changed your heart and put that desire in you. It's a God motivation, not a you motivation. Thats scripture. Krispy

I tend to agree with this post. I believe that God draws all of us, but the important point to me is that it is the wooing of the Lord and the conviction of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ. I think it is very different for all of us as we are different people. I read of a man who was searching for the truth about Christ and after talking it over with another believer walked home. He said he passed a certain phone pole and distinctly remembers saying to himself, "Lord, I believe that You died for my sins." He said there was no rush of emotion but in that moment he had total assurance that his sins were forgiven and that he was in right relationship with God. He said he was not the same after that event. I personally had great emotion first of the weight of sin and then of the weight lifted and of cleanness. I read of a man who wrestled with God all night long before he knew he was born again and I know others who simply believed and were born again with seemingly no effort at all. The point is that we are different people and God will deal with us in ways that are unique to us. Salvation is the same for all, but the way in which God draws us to that point can look very different. The point is that He draws us because He loves us and desires that we be redeemed to Himself.

I cannot recall ever knowing about Yeshua until I was invited by a friend to attend church.

At 7 years of age, I was terrified by the biblical 'believe or else' message that was being taught in Sunday School. I heard nothing of love in that message, nor did I learn much of Christ until I was in my 20's, and yet I was baptised years before.

Was I saved at 15 when I officially became a Believer? I don't know, since I hurried away from that church and never returned. I was scared yet again by the religion I was enveloped in. Yet Adonai drew me onward to read and study until one day it all made sense to me.

I continued to study, and learned more and deeply so, but all I can recall ever having, even now, is a continuous pulling at my spirit to learn more, and more deeply.

I feel as if I have come backwards into belief, and finally into trust in Yeshua. I still seek to know Yeshua, and Adonai...it fills my life. But motivation?

I can only remember fear. And though I seek to love our Lord, and myself, and my neighbor these days, I do not recall any personal motivation to be saved, or to know more of God, except to get away from pain, and to get nearer to the One who said He could save me, and Who promised to love me.

He has saved me, and He does love me, Baruch HaShem!

Actually I did love Jesus from childhood. I watched the movies at Easter and always wanted to be one of those women who followed Jesus.

I did not know Him at all and actually knew very little about Him. I knew He was the Son of God, born of virgin Mary.

I was raised knowing the basics but not in a Christian home at all. My grandmother was a Catholic. But there were some things that didn't make sense to me.

So, as a young girl I began looking into different religions and God did not allow me to get involved with any. I did not know false religions.

So, my mother told me one day, as I had invited the Mormons to our home and she booted them out, if I wanted to know which one was the real and true religion to ask God Himself. So I did.

Months later I was invited to a home Bible study. I heard my very first Bible study and songs about Jesus with an acoustical guitar. The Holy Spirit convicted me of sin, I asked God to forgive me and wept for a long time of cleansing. I was so happy, I knew if I died I would go to Heaven, I was so hungry to know more about my Savior.

All glory to God. Still today I am non denominational. The Word says if we seek Him we will find Him if we seek Him with all our hearts. Later I realized God did not take me to a denomination nor to a religion but took me straight to Jesus, the Son of God! And the journey began. I was so hungry to know this Jesus I devoured anything about Him I could get.

I also made many wrong decisions not being raised with His ways. But God has forgiven and He is finishing the good work He began in me and He has never left me nor forsaken me. And I am so very humbled & grateful for His great love, mercy and forgiveness that I am daily in awe of Him.

And when sharing Him, I will tell of His great love & salvation etc. but I wont argue. I just tell my testimony and say if you really want the Truth, ask God. He will be more than happy to show you.

I worship You my Lord, my Savior. Amen!

Quote:

Shouldn't the motivation of our heart be instead that of love and a desire to be with Jesus

How could I love and desire whom I don't know? Think about it!

_____

i realize i worded my original post very poorly. Sorry I meant to say "shouldn't the motivation of our heart be that of love and a desire to be with Jesus once we are twice born and not just a desire to escape the fires of hell? After conversion shouldn't the motivation of our heart be changing as we grow in Him not just still be to save self from hell?

sorry about the confusion. thanks for the responses they have been helpful

rdg

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Don't know if anyone else noticed this post by rdg or not but she did try to clarify her first post and changed the entire direction of the thread and question in doing so.

I do think that our desire and love for Jesus should grow as we grow in HIM but if it doesn't is that sin?? If the desire of our heart is after years of walking with HIM only to save self then that does seem like it would be selfishness on our part?? I am not sure myself of the answer to your question but it is something to really think and pray on.

God Bless
maryjane