What motivates us to follow Jesus each day?

If you want to achieve some noble goal, you absolutely must find a powerful motivation.

For instance, you may want to lose weight. Well, that's good but if you don't have a reason for doing so that is powerful enough to keep you on track, to motivate you, you'll fail.

Motivation is powerful. It is essential.

In my Bible reading this morning, I came across a few verses that (once again) showed what motivated the Apostle Paul. After all, who in their right mind would go through all that he went though?!

He was committed to preach the Gospel to folks who hadn't heard it yet and what did he get for it? Here's an abbreviated list:

He was abandoned and betrayed by friends.

He was threatened with injury and death by his countrymen.

He was imprisoned.

He was beaten with rods.

He was whipped with 39 lashes - 5 times!!!

He was stoned with rocks until he was thought to be dead.

On and one we could go...

What kept him going? His motivation must have been extremely powerful! What motivated him?

It was the Day of Judgment! He lived his life in light of the Day he would stand before Jesus and give an account of how he spent the one life God had given him.

In fact, in the last letter that he wrote to his young protégé, Timothy, he acknowledged that there was a man named Onesiphorus who had been so kind to him. It seems that Paul could not repay Onesiphorus for his kindness. Yet, listen to what Paul says about when that helpful servant would be repaid:

2 Timothy 1:16-18

"May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me - may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day! - and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus."

The Day of Judgment was a major theme, a major motivation, in Paul's life. It permeates virtually every letter he wrote. It's what kept him going. It's what kept his chin up.

Consider engaging in an experiment today: Instead of living today as an end in itself, live today in light of the Day of Judgment. Live today with the knowledge that one day you will stand before Jesus and give an account of how you spent this day, how you acted, what you said, who you served, how you loved the unlovable.

I can almost guarantee you that it would radically change the way you and I approach almost everything that happens today.