Good Monday friends. I trust this finds everyone back home and back
ready for the weekly grind.
As we start this morning we'll start with prayer.
Gracious and loving Father, we start this day with prayer. Come to
us as we prayerfully look at your Word. May we be blessed with
wisdom and knowledge as we seek to find You. Speak to us, and let
us let You have the last word in all things. We pray in Jesus'
name. Amen.
Yesterday we entered Advent using the Lectionary scriptures
recommended for this season. Using the Romans text of Romans 12:11-
14, we studied The Top Ten Directions for Christians. Number One was
to never lose our zeal for the Lord thus our study guide for today:
Monday: The dictionary defines zeal as "eagerness and ardent
interest in pursuit of something." It also lists similar words
as "fervor" and "passion." I know some days, especially Mondays are
days that we just can't get excited about much of anything, but with
the Lord with us that should be excitement enough. Let's start the
work week with an eagerness and ardent interest in pursuing God's
will and blessing for our lives. Let's read Romans 10 and see how
the word "zeal" is used there and what it could say to our lives
today.
Here is Romans 10: (The version used is The Message)
1 Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what's best for
Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and
pray to God for it all the time. 2 I readily admit that the Jews are
impressively energetic (zeal) regarding God - but they are doing
everything exactly backwards. 3 They don't seem to realize that this
comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God's
business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the
street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their
wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on
his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have
nothing to show for it. 4 The earlier revelation was intended simply
to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for
those who trust him to do it. 5 Moses wrote that anyone who insists
on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's
not so easy - every detail of life regulated by fine print! 6 But
trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story -
no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, 7 no
dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. 8 So what exactly
was Moses saying? The word that saves is right here, as near as the
tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. 9 Say the
welcoming word to God - "Jesus is my Master" - embracing, body and
soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from
the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply
calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation.
10 With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and
then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right
between him and me!" 11 Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts
God like this - heart and soul - will ever regret it."
In this passage Paul is concerned about misguided zeal. Paul says
those whom Paul wanted to reach through the Gospel were the Jews and
their zeal was guiding them in the wrong direction. Their concern
was more on the list of "don'ts and do's" that they were missing the
power of God's love and grace. Paul is reminding them that they had all the
signs and revelations about God's love and yet they rejected Jesus.
We're guilty of the same thing so many times. We see the working of
the Lord in our midst and we know deep down inside that God is there
and yet we still wander off in the wrong direction. Our zeal gets
easily misdirected.
Let's make it our top priority today to rekindle our zeal for the Lord. It's all about getting excited about He who loved us first.
PRAYER: Loving God, we thank you for your zeal for us and we pray that our zeal for you can be something that inspires and blesses us and others. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
I invite you to continue your contemplation of today's study guide and to dig deeper for yourself in the Word!
Have a great day!
Blessings!
e.v.
