It's Love or Nothing

A story of how motivation matters to God

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G’day Everyone!

Last week I wrote on the 3 M’s of Evangelism and Disciple Making. It’s a simple framework for ensuring our Motivation, Message and Method are LOVE, and in line with the example of Jesus.

Over the next 6 weeks we will be dissecting each of these M’s to help us love like Jesus. Today we begin with Motivation, and a story of how the Holy Spirit convicted me of when I was not motivated by love. I hope by sharing some of my shortcomings, it may help you step into a more beautiful way of sharing the gospel.

Equip

Sarah and I had resigned as Salvation Army Officers. We had no jobs, no money, no home. But we were certain the Holy Spirit was calling us on another adventure, and so we stepped out in faith and found ourselves at a Missions School in Mozambique.

One day we were in the middle of the bush on an outreach. We were walking around the village and praying for healing. We had heard countless stories of people being healed, so we were very excited to get into the action.

We found an old lady who was blind. We began praying for her. I was very excited, but I saw out of the corner of my eye that my wife Sarah was sitting in the dirt looking after our baby son.

Not wanting her to miss out, I went over to her and told her to swap, “I’ll look after our baby and you can join in the prayer.” After all, this was going to make a great story!

But as soon as I sat down in the dirt I heard the Holy Spirit say, “James, do you even love this lady or do you just want to see a cool miracle?”

I was shocked… I froze as I tried to answer honestly. In that moment I realised a horrible truth.

I loved evangelism. I loved healing. I loved miracles. I loved ministry.
But this woman? Not really. I had not even considered her.

Over the next couple of months The Lord took me on a journey of learning to love people more than loving ministry. The people we are ministering to, aren’t just props, they are people who are deeply known, valued and loved by God.

It’s a lesson I return to regularly.

Why do you share the Gospel?

Throughout the years, I have had varied motivations for sharing the gospel. For example…

Fear - I read passages like Ezekiel 33 that spoke about the dangers of not warning people. I took this to heart, and believed if I did not warn people of sin and hell then not only would they be in trouble, but I too would be in danger of fire and hell.

Not only did this fear push me to share the gospel, it made me very judgmental of those around me who were not sharing the gospel. I believed people were not owning the responsibility God had given them.

Expectation - I shared the gospel many times because it was what was expected of me. People would invite me to speak to their families, friends and Churches because they knew when I spoke people would often respond. God had given me a gift, and I as well as other people wanted me to use it.

I shared the gospel because:

I loved ministry. I found it fun!
I feared what would happen if I didn’t.
I was expected to.

Whilst there is definitely some good in there - it’s not quite the motivation God has in mind.

I wonder, how do you think our message is perceived when we are not motivated by love?

Love or Nothing

In 1 Corinthians 13, The Apostle Paul shares that even if we are amazing communicators, totally prophetic, full of faith, and super generous - but don’t have love, then we are nothing!

Love is the motivation for sharing the gospel.

Later in our missions school we found ourselves in the bush again. And again I found a blind woman. This time I took the time to see her. I stopped, thought about her and her life, and had compassion. I could feel the love God had for her.

This time when we prayed, she was totally healed! I was overwhelmed and speechless for much of the rest of the day.

Still to this day, I get a bit choked up when I share the story. Not because of the amazing miracle (and it was an amazing miracle), but because of the depth of love that I sensed in that moment.

If we want to share the gospel like Jesus did, then we must start with love. And when we do, miracles happen!

*Photo of the blind woman who was healed

Activate

This weeks challenge is to Pray for Love.

Set time aside each day this week to ask God to fill you with His love. As you pray for your family, friends, co-workers, people you are ministering to, ask God to reveal the love He has for them.

When we are motivated by love, incredible things follow.

Let’s Go!