Just yesterday, I made a decision to try and lose some weight. If you know my wife and I, or you read my post last week, you know that my wife has been on a health journey for quite some time now. In the last year, she has improved her physical, mental and spiritual health by leaps and bounds. You would probably think that this is the reason that I decided to get healthy. The truth is while my wife’s journey has inspired me in many aspects of my life, it wasn’t her weight loss that caused me to make a decision to lose some myself. Actually, it was a competition offering money and cigars to the person that lost the most weight. I love cigars and I could always use some more money. So the incentives of the top prize urged me to commit to doing something that I have known I should do for quite some time now.
This got me thinking we all have things that we know we should be doing: spending more time with family, getting things done around the house, getting healthy, spending time with God, reading the bible daily or a number of other things. We know we should do them but we put them off day after day, week after week and month after month. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I need some sort of motivation, some type of incentive to get started despite knowing that doing these tasks will improve my life in some way and come with their own rewards,. It seems a little silly that I need incentives beyond just improving my quality of life, but nonetheless, more often than not, that is exactly what I need.
However, the fact is you aren’t typically going to find a situation where somebody else will offer you a reward for doing something for yourself. You will more than likely be left needing to motivate yourself outside of the occasional “good job” or “way to go.” People, other than your spouse and maybe close family, just aren’t going to be all that invested in your self-improvement. Well, there is one exception. There is one who is always invested in us and everything we do. One who is always willing to help us along in our journey. One who is always there for our struggles, losses and of course, the victories.
God always loves you enough to help you improve your life. In fact, that is really what He is all about. He is about improving us and our quality of life to match the plan that He has for us. He has a different plan for each of us, but I can assure you that it is an amazing and wonderful plan. If you think things are dark and you need a little light, then God will gladly shine light into your world. If you are living a life of prosperity then I can guarantee you it doesn’t come close to the abundant life that God is offering. If you are at rock bottom and you haven’t met God, then let me introduce you to: The Lord of Lords, The King of Kings, Wonderful Counselor, The Alpha and Omega, The Almighty, The Great I Am. Not only did he die, but he rose from the grave all because He wanted to have a relationship with you, help you with your struggles and improve your life.
If you need motivation or incentive to get into the Bible, how about this: the Bible is packed with promises that God has given to His people. Filled with verses that describe the truth of how beautiful and worthy you really are. Overflowing with love and grace that will get you through the toughest days and darkest nights. However, you can’t petition for those promises, claim those truths or experience that love until you read the bible for yourself and know what it says. If that doesn’t motivate you to want to get into the Bible, I don’t know what will, and that isn’t even the end. There is even more to it than that.
As you get into the Bible and read what God has to say and let Him speak into your life. He will also offer you motivation to start doing other things in your life that you have been putting off. He will give you the drive to accomplish goals you never thought were possible. You may even find that some of the stress and worry that was keeping you from them are removed from your life entirely. As God works to bring you to the abundant life He has always wanted for you.
I know I’m not the only one that that has a list of things that they need or want to do in order to improve their lives. I also know I’m not the only that needs a little bit of motivation to get started. I can’t offer you the incentives or motivation for every single goal, and I don’t have the ability to run a big contest with a big prize to help everyone, but hopefully I was able to offer you enough to motivate you to start reading the Bible and get closer to God. If you do that one thing, God will give you the motivation and energy for the rest.
