Jim Rohn said, “The first rule of management is this: Don’t send your ducks to eagle school. Why? Because it won’t work. Good people are found not changed. They can change themselves, but you can’t change them. You want good people, you have to find them. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them.

“I picked up a magazine not long ago in New York that had a full-page ad in it for a hotel chain. The first line of the ad read, “We do not teach our people to be nice.” Now that got my attention. The second line said, “We hire nice people.” I thought, “What a clever shortcut!”²

In spite of the spin of the daily news—emphasizing mostly bad news in the world around us while neglecting most of the good news—God is at work in today’s world. He does have a plan and is looking for motivated people to do his work here on earth—to stand in the gap to “proclaim salvation” and save lost souls—for it is only motivated people who get God’s work done. The half-hearted never make it.

Motivation comes from within—from people who are genuinely committed to Christ and desire to see God’s work on earth done—and get involved in doing it.

You, too, can have a vital role in what God is doing in the world today—the world in which you live. There is no greater privilege on earth … no greater reward in heaven … and no greater way to invest your life for time and eternity—than to be a part of God’s plan and what he is doing in your world today. Sometimes it takes involvement to get motivated.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You that you use ordinary people to do Your work on earth. I’m available to stand in the gap where I live. Please use me to be a part of Your plan and help me to be ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I touch—every day. Thank You for this wonderful privilege, and thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Isaiah 52:7 (NIV).

2. Jim Rohn, excerpted from ‘Leading an Inspired Life,’ Cited on From the Masters www.beliefnet.com