"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?" (cf. Romans 11:35).
"Who has given to me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine," (cf. Job 41 11, NLT).
"He gave himself for us in order to rescue us from every kind of lawless behavior, and cleanse a special people for himself who are eager to do good actions [zealous of good works]," (cf. Titus 2:14, CEB).
Many are motivated to serve the Lord, but not according to knowledge (cf. Prov 19:2; Romans 10:2). There is the false motivation for selfish motives and misdirected and ignorant zeal. For example many have one of three psychological complexes that feed their ego: guilt complexes that drive a need to make it up to God for some wrong done without repentance; martyr's complexes that makes one feel that the more he suffers for God, the better saint he is; and finally the messiah complex that makes one feel he's the answer and the church or God's kingdom cannot do without him.
All religious systems are a works proposition that one merits or earns their way to heaven or eternal bliss, paradise, or nirvana; they do work out of obligation (they have to do them!). But in Christ, it's different. we don't have to, but want to; it's not an "in order to," but a "therefore." We are motivated by our love for Christ not to earn merit before God. We feel we can never repay God for His grace and deserve it in the first place; "For by the grace of God I am what I am," (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10).
The only genuine motivation is out of heartfelt love for Christ, not that we can render anything to the Lord to make up for His blessing--that would be an insult to His grace for we can not do God any favors. The true motives come from a right attitude and it all starts with the right knowledge or doctrine, leading to right thinking or attitude, to the right action or deeds, which in turn lead to a right feeling about God and yourself--peace with God.
We are to be in awe of God and that is the heart of worship which should never be dried out and spoiled by the world-system. This awe is inspiring us onto good works and love in action; after all, He owns us and love is the response and result of knowing God. We must acknowledge we cannot ever make it up to God: the definition of grace is that we cannot repay it, make it up, earn or deserve it, and cannot improve on it. We accept grace, period as eternal debtors of God. This grace is a life-changing event on us that should radicalize our behavior and transform or renew our thinking and attitudes. We are not called to become martyrs but to be living sacrifices--to live for Christ putting Him first--this motive of love in the heart is of the purest sort. We can do more for Christ alive than dead; remember, Christ is the sacrifice, not us. There are some who would die for a Christ they won't live for, likewise a church they won't attend.
We are to live solely for God with His glory in mind, not to make ourselves a reputation or to a name for ourselves. We realize that there is room for improvement no matter how much we've progressed: We are works in progress and ask others to be patient with us because God isn't finished with us yet, and God promises to finish all He begins--the good work of sanctification (cf. Phil. 1:6). In other words, we are "bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God," (cf. Col. 1:10). We are forever indebted to God and all God asks of us is us, to give of ourselves in unselfish living and sacrifice. In sum, those who are highly motivated do so because of a knowledge of God's glory and are in a sense of awe or worship: "those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits." (cf. Dan. 11:32). Soli Deo Gloria!
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