Hey, Jesus here. Just checking in again. You’re doing great, faithful servant! Oh, not feeling so faithful? Fear not, you have been, you are, and you will be.

I wanted to talk to you about your ‘why?’ Any journey of transformation is going to take a significant amount of effort. Change is difficult. Your ‘old man’ or ‘worldly self’ is going to keep fighting to come out and control your behavior. Sheer willpower will not be enough to break through the bad habits and strongholds.

No, in times of weakness and temptation, you will need intrinsic motivation to keep you moving forward. Intrinsic motivation refers to actions that are driven by internal rewards. The motivation arises from within because of the inherent satisfaction rather than the desire for a reward or specific outcome.

A long time ago I beckoned some fishermen, a tax collector, and a bunch of other ordinary men and women to “come and follow me.” They dropped everything – their livelihoods, their families, their homes to follow me and learn from me as I opened up the Kingdom of God to crowds of people, healed folks, cast out demons and offered the forgiveness of sins. Why would they do that? Why would you?

There ARE rewards and good outcomes from following Me. Eternal life – that’s a big one. Forgiveness of past, current and future sins which takes away the burden of guilt and shame – another biggie. The chance to do good works prepared for you by our Father in Heaven. It does feel good to help people. Having the Holy Spirit live in you to encourage, comfort, convict and instruct you. Developing a deep, close relationship with your Creator who made you to love and praise Him. It’s deeply fulfilling to know and be fully known and cared for by God, your provider, protector and savior.

So, what is your ‘why?’ Why are you willing take risks and give up control of your life for me? It has to be about more than a ‘Get Out of Hell Free’ card. It should be more than pleasing your parents or your spouse. It should be more than just a habit you’ve established or a reputation you need to keep up. Negative motivators are almost never enough to keep you going.

I’m going to share my ‘why.’ It wasn’t to defeat Satan, although I totally did. It wasn’t out of fear of disappointing our Father in Heaven. It wasn’t so I could be famous or have crowds follow me. Nope. My ‘why?’ was and continues to be LOVE. In the Garden of Gethsemane, I had a moment of weakness. I begged our Father to find some other way. But you know what? At that moment of trial and temptation, Father God showed me pictures of people – pictures of you – all the people who needed a Savior, who needed true forgiveness and everlasting life. When I saw you and all those others, I was so eager to meet you in Heaven and hang out eternally that I made the decision to give up my life, go to that cross and endure its pain and shame. It was absolutely the right decision. No regrets.

You also have to make difficult decisions in order to follow the will of our Father and be transformed into the saint He and I know you can be. In those times, whether it’s giving a financial gift, giving your time, having a difficult conversation, going to that church meeting after a long day, or just getting out of bed when you’d rather sleep in, you need to think about your ‘why?’ Why did you make a commitment to Me? Why did you dedicate your life to following our God? Keep it front and center in your mind as you PAUSE, QUESTION and DECIDE.

When you sense a prompting from God, or an opportunity to do some kingdom work, PAUSE and clear away distractions for a moment. Go somewhere private, turn down the radio or whatever so you can really listen and think. Then QUESTION. You will probably raise a bunch of objections to whatever the Lord is asking. Look at each one in light of your ‘why’. Will this action move you closer to your mission or purpose? Then DECIDE. If you genuinely can’t or don’t have time, that’s okay. Just be sure. Make a conscious decision, don’t cave to comfort, peer pressure or the world’s definition of what you should do with your time or money.

The more decisions you make to invest in God’s Kingdom with your heart, soul, mind, strength, time, money and resources, the easier it gets. And before you know it, you will be transforming into a more loving, joyful, peace-loving, patient, gentle, kind, good, faithful and self-controlled person. Then your faith walk will truly be ‘fruitful.’😉

Right now, write down your 'why?' You can also think of it as your Mission Statement, Purpose or 'North Star.' Keep it somewhere where you'll see it often and let it guide all of your thoughts and actions. Keep up the good works!

Lenten Blessings,

Jen