Motivation Part 2--Appetite

Read Part 1 first, now right after this post

So the question is, “How do you motivate someone to do what they should be doing, (and oftentimes will even admit they should be doing it)? We see in the Bible that the law has the power of condemn, but is unable to empower people to obey it. Likewise we can “guilt” them to do what they should--like pray--but they still won’t. Instead they will come out with excuses: “I’m saved by grace, not works. Jesus knows that I love Him, I pray all the time anyway, I don’t pray well; it’s not my gift….” On and on the excuses go--why we don’t have to do what we know we should. What’s the answer? Debating them over the validity of their excuses? We’ll never win that debate. And even if we could, they still won’t pray, because, bottom line, they simply don’t want to. So how do we motivate people to do what they don’t want to do? The Bible has an answer. The answer is to make them hungry. Hunger is a powerful motivator. Prov. 16:26 [New Life Version] says--“A workman’s hunger works for him. The need of his mouth pushes him on.“ God provides the motivation for people to fulfill His commandment to work by tying it to our need to eat. We enjoy food. We also need it and suffer hunger pangs when we don’t have any. Paul emphasized this in 2 Thes 3:10 when he said, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” That woks in the natural. How about in the spiritual realm? Is there a parallel motivator in the spiritual appetite? Yes. That’s exactly the way it’s supposed to work! If you can get a person hungry enough for Jesus, they’ll do anything trying to get more of Him: praying, fasting, even praying all night,and 40 day fasts, etc. Don’t try and shame them into it, that’ll never work. But let them whet their appetites on Jesus and turn them loose. Does the Bible support this? Look at Psalm 34:8—“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” And in Isaiah 55:1 the prophets cries out: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
 come to the waters;
 and you who have no money,
 come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
 without money and without price. 2Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
 and your wages for what does not satisfy?” Rev. continues the same theme in 22:17—“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Jesus was always looking for spiritual hunger and thirst. In John 7, on what the Bible calls the “last, great day of the feast,” Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.“ He picked the day when fleshly appetites would be most fulfilled: all the stops would be pulled out with food and wine and partying—everything the world had to offer. That’s exactly when Jesus cried out, saying in effect, “Are any of you still hungry and thirsty? Do you have an appetite that this world can’t satisfy? Then come to me and try what I have to offer!” Someone who has developed an appetite for Jesus will do whatever it takes to fill that craving. But then we find out that the more He gives us of Himself, the hungrier we grow for even more! Try and be satisfied with one revelation, with one supernatural experience—the more we get the more we want. The person with no appetite is the one who has never tasted Jesus, or it was so long ago they have readjusted their appetites back to the thin and tasteless gruel the world offers. Even worldly fame and riches are paltry substitutes for the true riches of heaven. In His presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. But you must taste and see for yourself. I can’t talk you, or shame you, or scare you into it. You must make the discovery. If you have spiritual hunger, follow it. If you don’t, pray and ask for it and keep on asking until you get it. There are reasons mystics became mystics: they tasted enough to sell everything out for more. There are reasons the apostles were willing to die martyrs’ deaths: they were in hot pursuit of Jesus, and nothing could stop them. Taste and see!