What Drives You? (Part 1)

Ever heard the phrase, “That Drives Me Crazy“? It often comes out when someone is frustrated with someone else. What drives our choices is crucial to understanding why we do what we do and why God has to eventually bring consequences for choices made, whether for good or bad actions. This article may be a little deep for some but it’s important to see why humanity has gone so off the rails in their behavior and purpose in life. The next generation depends on us helping them to see why things went wrong and how to correct our corruption as a people.

Consider God’s frustration when he gives humanity a complex brain that can reason and create almost anything and we end up using that tool for harm and not for good. How discouraging it must be for God to tolerate our wrong use of “Free will” by only hurting ourselves and others with it. We abuse the very gift God meant to be used to bless, not curse, one another! Is there any wonder why God had Noah spend 120 years building the ship called the Ark to rescue anyone that was willing to repent of their evil ways? God gives man amazing abilities and freedom and man, in the end, “Only Wants To Do Evil” so God  pulls the plug on humanity except for a few souls with Noah and his family. What’s so discouraging is Noah and his family are no example of upstanding citizens. Maybe we can understand them better when we consider they lived amongst such evil people for so long.

We tend to look at Noah and the flood as a final rescue plan to save some of creation and yet, when you look at the human population today, it appears we are heading for the same outcome unless man can be persuaded to stop the madness we all are heading for. Maybe we need to re-look at “WHY” free will is so valuable to God.  Maybe we need to re-evaluate what our current culture teaches in public schools.  Are we animals or are we God’s special creation made in his image? You can’t believe in a special creation and evolution at the same time. They are diametrically opposed.  I am writing this article because many believers deny man has free will because God is sovereign. If God is totally in control, then man would not be sinning and the earth would not be heading towards the destruction that it is.

God designed animals to live by instinct but humans he gave the ability to make choices that go against instinct and even against reason and logic. Why? Because to be a moral person means we have the ability to choose between opposite values of good and evil. God seems to value our choices even when they are wrong and destructive. Let’s look at the definition of instinct and then compare it to humanity verses the rest of the animal kingdom.

INSTINCT – an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli.

Animals don’t go against how they are wired. Birds fly south for the winter, salmon swim back up stream to the place they were born. Animals can deviate in small ways based on training, but they always are functioning and living as their design was intended.

People, on the other hand, are very different from animals in that we are moral beings who can choose between opposites, even against the instinct that God gave us. If a house is on fire a parent will run in to save their child even though they know they will die. A mother who is wired by God to be a nurturer can choose to abandon their child for pleasure or comfort and even kill their own child.

HUMANS – have a moral sense because their makeup determines the presence of three necessary conditions for ethical behavior:

(1) The ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s own actions; (2) The ability to make value judgments;                                        (3) The ability to choose between alternative courses of action.

In our make up as people, we are made in the image of God, which encompasses self determination. We also have a thing called “NATURE”, which happens when we accumulate life experiences. Our nature is also called a habit pattern. This nature is something that is developed over time from repeated choices and actions in a certain direction or style.  This pattern, over time, becomes an “INSTINCT” in our being. 

Once our habit patterns are repeated time after time it is hard for humans to deviate from those patterns. God purposed us this way so when we made good decisions it would become second nature to us. If a child repeatedly lies and get away with it without consequences, lying becomes a learned nature for that child.  As they become adults they no longer think about lying, they just do it automatically. Our nature can be altered once it is engrained in us but not without great effort and often divine intervention. My grandfather smoked Camel cigarettes without filters for 50 plus year until a doctor told him he would be dead in 6-12 months.  He stopped cold turkey, no meds or hospitals. He just decided to stop, which goes to show what we are capable of if we try. Paul the apostle, writing to early believers, taught that although we have a habit pattern, or what he called sin natures, that nature can be stopped and a new nature can be developed. It may be difficult to change, but change can happen none the less.

In the book of Romans, Paul articulates just how we got into developing a “Bad Nature” and how we can “Develop” a good one instead. It all starts and depends on seeing the outcome of both good choices and bad ones. The more we reinforce our thinking and choosing with the outcome in mind the more likely we will develop a strong and healthy nature guided by the Holy Spirit rather than by our sinful nature developed by Satan’s influences of deception.

Most translations use the word “FLESH or NATURE” in Romans 8:5-6, but the New Century Version captures the Greek word best by using “SELF”. Paul says our true self in Christ can become the dominant characteristic of who we are rather than the old self, which was selfish at its core. It all has to do with our thinking. We don’t have to live as we did because our nature or developed instinct can be changed, unlike animals.

Romans 8:5-6 (NCV)                                                                                                                                                                                                  Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do. If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace.

What you focus your mind on can make all the difference in the world!

In the part two of “What Drives You?” I will go further into how Transformation can happen and how it can be hindered.

Questions:

1) Do you find yourself being divine in life? It all depends on who and what influences you that makes the difference, God or man.

2) Do you long to develop a godly drive instead of a worldly drive? Only by letting the Holy Spirit lead you will this happen. But be of good cheer!  He is willing and able to do more in you than you can do in yourself!

Loving to do the hard work of thinking,

Pastor Dale