What motivates you to do things? A couple of weeks ago I preached on the topic of being "perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect" (words of Jesus). The thought came to me before the preaching that "God never asks us to do things we are not capable of doing". God knows us inside and out, He made us and knows our make-up intimately. No thought, no action, no word we say ever escapes the notice of God.
He is the All-knowing, the All-seeing and the All-hearing God. If He knows us that well and knows what we can and can not do then surely when He says to do something we can and should do it. So often, though, there lies a gulf between what we should do and what we do. Sometimes it might be ignorance of the Scriptures, sometimes its blatant disobedience, other times it might be forgetfulness. But the motivation always remains the same. The motivation then is not to do what He says for the sake of doing them but to do things because He loves us. Jesus said "he who loves me keeps my commandments". He shows His love for us in that He sent His precious son to die for us on the cross, to bleed and be punished for our sins. He did not deserve to die for our sins, He did it willingly and He wanted desperately to live with us forever in Heaven and escape the punishment of Hell fire. "We love Him because He first loved us".
The motivation from men and women in the world is that "you can be anything you want to be" just believe in yourself. The motivation from God is that "you can be the person you were meant to be in Christ", you have a purpose in God, believe and trust in God. You "can do all things through Christ who strengthens" you.
