One thing that motivates many is not love, but hate. The religious leaders hated Paul. As we enter chapter 25 in Acts, this is two years after the riot in Jerusalem. They still want him dead. They asked Governor Festus to have Paul brought from Caesarea to Jerusalem. But Festus responded in Acts 25:5, "let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man, to see if there is any fault in him." In Acts 25:7, we read, "When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove." The trip by foot or on animal from Jerusalem was around 60 miles. Many of these religious leaders would not have been young men, but motivated by their contempt for Paul and their desire to see him dead, the journey was no obstacle to them. Yet we read in Matthew 2, when the wise men came to Jerusalem following the star and in search for the King of the Jews, the Messiah, King Herod was troubled. Herod then gathered the chief priests and scribes and asked where the Christ was to be born, and quoting from Micah 5:2, they tell Herod, in Matthew 2:5 that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. Bethlehem is only 5 miles from Jerusalem, yet the religious leaders were not motivated enough to take that short journey to investigate whether or not what the wise men were seeking was true. The truth is people trust more in what they can touch and feel than on what they can't.

Often people take more stock and are motivated more by what they can touch than the things of God. Paul when presenting the gospel message to King Agrippa asks in Acts 26:8, "Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?" The same God who created the universe out of nothing can certainly raise someone from the dead. In fact, through the Prophet Elijah , this actually occurred in for the widow's son in 1 Kings 17:17-24, and through the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 4:18-37 to the Shunammite's son. So, with this history behind them, and the power of God being unquestionable, why did those opposing Christ find it so impossible that Jesus could be raised?

J.B. Phillips said, "If our God is so small we can fully comprehend Him, then He is not big enough to worship". Do we believe that? Difficulty is not measured by the task before us but by the capacity or ability in the one doing the work. In the case of God, nothing is impossible. Knowing this, what motivates us and what drives us? Trusting that God is powerful and capable enough to accomplish anything within His will, why do we place limits around what He can do in us? Since most households own a Bible, and most households have their share of problems, why are so few choosing to take the short walk to their bookcase and open it? Why are people driven to spend countless hours seeking self-help advice from books or online, rather than opening the only source with true answers. Why are people willing to take buses and travel great distances to march for or against one cause or another, but not willing to share the gospel truth with one soul who is lost without that gospel knowledge. The truth is we all stand for something, but we have to decide what that is. We all are motivated to do certain things, but what is the source of that motivation. We have one life to live on this earth, and only a guarantee of this day, what are we going to do with it? We read in Hebrews 9:27, "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this judgment,". Those who have departed before us, live on in one of two realms: heaven or Hades (before eventually going to hell).

We were created to bring glory to His Name. Let us be about our Father's business, and let that be the driving reason for our lives.