What is it that motivates us to act, to do, to go? There are things that we will sacrifice for; things that we will go to great effort to experience or obtain. Then there are other things that we won't get off the couch for. What's the difference? Is the one thing of great importance and the other not? And how can something move one person to action and the same thing have no moving effect on someone else?
Jonathon Edwards said that we are moved by our natural affections. He explained that we all have things in our life that we naturally deem important, and other things that have little or no importance to us at all. Then there are those things in the middle - affections that, according to our mood, we can take or leave.
Growing up in church, I remember going because I was supposed to, because I was made to. I went, but there was no affection that moved me to go. It was just as easy for me to miss as it was for me to attend. But all my affections changed when Jesus came and changed my heart. He gave me a new nature, and with that, new natural affections. Now I desire to worship with other believers. Now I have a desire to read his word. I want to know Him, and the old affections continue to fade away.
Our affections are what we're drawn to. Where we devote our time, our extra money, our passion - these will tell us who we really are - and who we really aren't. If we profess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but our lives are devoted to the things of this world, then we show that our affections haven't changed, which means our nature hasn't changed, and we are not His. (1 John 3:7-10).
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