Too often have I heard it unashamedly pronounced and profusely wailed from the pulpits and alters that it is you who needs to be zealous for God. You need to love God with all your might, soul, strength, and heart, with every single fiber of your being. I have heard it countless times that it is always up to the listener, the innocent bystanders, and the spectator to get on fire for God. He was responsible for somehow finding the strength needed and power necessary in cultivating all the requisites required to serve God wholeheartedly. Eh. Unsurprisingly, I have been both guilty and victim of such dreck-like messages of "encouragement and motivation." The problem within telling people to do these things lies within their performance and their faithfulness, placing this undue burden on their shoulders that they cannot carry but, likewise, was not meant to carry. The longer and more adamantly one professes to his friends, family, church congregation, neighbor, self or those he believes need saving from the scorching flames of hell and the vengeful hands of God, greater will he plunge himself and others into the down spiraling pits of performance, guilt, and failure. I am not stating that zeal, excitement, passion, and fire towards God are damaging in and of themselves. I am, however, saying that when they are used intentionally or unintentionally as Christian subterfuge or methods to work up a response in people, it ceases to be love, grace, and truth and is converted into mere hype, duty, and bondage. Without hesitation, I would encourage you (not simply first and foremost) to always yell from the rooftops how much God is on fire for them. Scream from the fields how zealous God has always been for them, regardless what they feel is unforgivable. Declare from the church pulpits that God is good and loves everyone with every divinely eternal fiber of His being. Preach the Gospel and there will be an unquenchable fire, an ongoing zeal, and fiery passion produced. "We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 17:56:20 +0000
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