Here are three different valid motivations for obeying God in all that we think, say, and do (adapted from IHOP KC):
[1] Fear Based Obedience - motivated by the conviction that we will have negative circumstances if we disobey. We fear doing something that puts us to shame with God and ourselves... obedience brings blessing, but living in fear and shame is not the fullness of the Gospel.
[2] Duty Based Obedience - motivated by reading the bible and doing it, we do not feel anything but out of intellectual will power we obey... obedience brings blessing, but eventually most will get fatigued at this level of obedience and burnout except for the extreme type A personalities.
[3] Affection Based Obedience - motivated by our repsonse to experiencing His affection for us and feeling affection back to Him [see Eph 3:16-19]. This is the most powerful type of obedience and is also the deepest and most consistent. This obeidence results from abiding in the Vine of intimacy with Jesus... learning how to seek the Kingdom within that is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, learning how to keep the oil of our lamps always full so that we burn brightly with His love to the outside world...
Learning how to let Him love you in intimacy, that is the challenge. When we allow Him to love us then we start to really know Him as a Person and how beautiful He is and how committed He is to us... this makes obeidence to Him burn with power and puts us on the path to the fullness of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
So our challenge is to learn how to come before Him habitually, every day, so that our spirit can soak up His love for us, so that flows to our thoughts, words, and actions and obdience becomes easy!
Here are a few scriptures to ponder:
Joh 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
2Co 13:5 …Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you…
1Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you…
Luk 17:21 …the kingdom of God is within you
1Co 4:20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.
Rom 14:17 for the kingdom of God is… righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Luk 10:39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word.
Luk 10:42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luk 11:2 …When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
Luk 11:8 …because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Luk 11:9 So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Luk 11:10 For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
Luk 11:13 …how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"
Psa 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.
Mat 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Ecc 5:2 Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.
Psa 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God…
Psa 62:1 …My soul waits in silence for God only…
Psa 77:6 …I will meditate with my heart, And my spirit ponders
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Joh 4:23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Rom 8:15 …you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
Rom 8:6 …the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace
1Co 14:15 …I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also…
Eph 4:23 …the spirit of your mind
Eph 1:18 …the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
Joh 3:3 …unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God
Joh 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Luk 6:12 …He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to [literally from the Greek "of] God.
Rom 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
Rom 5:5 …the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Eph 3:16 …be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
Eph 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...
Eph 3:19 …and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Joh 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You…
Joh 17:26 …so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."