Motives
When Selfish isn't Sinful
by
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Most of us, including Christ-followers, probably think of selfish motives as being inherently sinful. We believe this because we know that selfish motives generally produce behaviors that are aimed at benefiting us at the expense of others. In other words, selfish motives produce behaviors that hurt others, and that amounts to sin. Many of us, especially Christ-followers, also believe that we all have a problem of being addicted to these selfish motives and behaviors to varying degrees, and we often long to be free from this addiction.
What many of us do not realize is that these selfish motives that are inherently sinful are our secondary or surface motives, and not our primary or inner motives. It is our inner motives that ultimately drive everything we do, and they are not inherently sinful. These inner motives can either become sinful or helpful, depending on what we do with them. If we employ the natural response to these inner motives, they will always lead to sinful surface motives and behaviors. However, if we use the spiritual response to satisfy these motives, they will lead us to freedom from sin and complee and lasting fulfillment.
God repeatedly invites us to trust Him to satisfy our inner motives, rather than trusting ourselves, others or things to satisfy them. When we learn what these inner motives are and how we can trust God to satisfy them, we can find the freedom and fulfillment that we were always meant to have.
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About the Book
“Motives: When Selfish Isn’t Sinful” will help you learn how to identify and use your selfish inner motives to find freedom from sin with complete and lasting fulfillment for your life. Discover the difference between your surface motives and your inner motives, and how to become more aware of them. Learn how the natural way of satisfying your inner motives will always result in emptiness and addiction to sin, while the spiritual way will always result in fulfillment and freedom from sin. Discover how trusting God to satisfy the deepest desires of your heart can give you the happiness you always wanted. Learn how to use the spiritual way to satisfy your inner motives, so you can experience all the pleasure, security, love, worth, wisdom, beauty, and purpose for your life you were always meant to have. See your deepest inner motives as the key to the best life you could ever live.
About the Author
Ron Cripe is a retired licensed professional counselor. He has a degree in biblical theology from William Tyndale College and a master’s degree in counseling from Wayne State University.
He practiced counseling for twenty years and taught Bible and counseling classes in churches and continuing education programs for forty years.
Ron lives with his wife, Bethany, in South Lyon, Michigan. They have four adult children and six grandchildren.