Motivation - part 3

To please God - this has to be our motivation in everything! If that is our motivation for life and for our obedience, we don't have to be specifically motivated for the immediate task in front of us.

When I played football, we started meeting the end of July as a team for practices. The first week was "Hell Week." Aptly named to be sure. All we did during our 3 hour evening practices was run drills (no pads) and run and then when we were dropping to the ground, coach would scream in our faces and make us run some more.\

The next week started "two-a-days" This was two practices back to back with a 45 minute break between. We had to be on the field stretching by 6:30 am and got to go home around 1 pm.

The following week was camp. This went Sunday to Saturday. Monday through friday we had a morning practice with conditioning and weights, an afternoon practice in full pads, and an evening practice of running drills.

Let me tell you, the motivation for practice wasn't always there. The motivation to play was. That was the motivation that caused us to follow through and give it our all (those that cared anyway).

As Christ-followers, we may not be motivated in the moment to do what needs to be done, but if we have a bigger motive, then we can obey and do what's right with a right motive. I know this thought is somewhat abstract, but what matters is our life motivation, way more than our moment motivations. It is our life motivation that we are going to be judged by. Yes our moment motivations do matter and we need to work on them, but after our life motivation is fixed on God. We have to get first things first.

The analogy of filling a jar with water, sand, small pebbles, and large stones comes to mind. To get everything in the jar, the order matters greatly. First the biggest items, then the next biggest, and down to the smallest followed by the water. It all fits. If we put any item in in the wrong order, it won't all fit. Life is the same way. The order we do things matter. God works from the inside out. Salvation comes BEFORE the changes in behavior and lifestyle.

Once we get down why we live and who we are in Him, then we can start to bring all the little areas of our lives in line with Him.

So, the question is - why do you live each day? For God or for self?