A friend of mine is an avid runner.

She’s so dedicated that some would say she’s addicted.

She feels uneasy if she hasn’t run in a few days and has confessed that, in the past, it was a battle for her to do other things (such as read her Bible) instead of run in the morning.

She’s extremely disciplined.

But she loves it.

Her feelings towards running always intrigued me, because I’m the type of person who would probably rather go to the dentist than run in the morning.

What can I learn from her about loving to exercise?

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In the Christian life, our deeds are important. But even more important are our motives.

Even the most sweeping actions and sacrificial gifts are nothing if done without the proper motivation – they leave us, as Paul says, like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

There’s only one motivation that will provide us the fuel necessary to endure – only one motivation that will count for anything in the eyes of God.

That motivation is love.

If you struggle with maintaining the discipline to keep going or if you struggle with focusing and managing your time – love is the only motivation that will allow you to succeed.

It sounds easy to say but hard to live out – mainly for the reason that we, as Christians, are so good at deceiving ourselves. We think we’re acting out of love when we’re not.

I have problems acting out of love. I imagine you do too.

Here are some ways that not serving out of love will cause us to fail – and thinking about these behaviors will also help us diagnose our own hearts to see if we are truly acting out of love.

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It’s pretty common for me to hear something convicting.

Whether it’s a sermon, a chapter from a book, a blog post, a word from a friend, or scripture itself – I’m surrounded by helpful words about things I need to remember.

Truths I need to claim. Attitudes I need to have.

But is my conviction leading me to real fruitful action?

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When you’re doing work that matters, temptation will come.

That may sound strange because we fail to grasp what a huge role temptation plays in our lives.

When we think of being tempted, we think of sexual affairs or perhaps the allure of lying for financial gain. We may even think of smaller things such as dieters wanting to munch on some cookies.

But we can learn some valuable lessons when we take a deeper look at temptation.

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Proverbs 26:13
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”

It’s tempting for us to read through Proverbs with the general idea that it outlines good and bad behavior. Anything mentioned under “fool, scoffer, sluggard” would be things we are not to emulate.

But think more deeply about what the Bible says about motivations. There’s a gold mine of wisdom when we think about the subtle connections the Bible makes.

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