How do I become zealous/passionate for God’s plans?
Pray for that kind of heart
Know God and think about who He is
The times that I feel most in love with my husband is when I see him doing something that he knows I will like, but not just doing it…I see him having a good time doing it for me. He wants to do that for me. And then I feel so very loved!
God is the same way.
He loves to see those who love Him by their obedience to His desires, but not just obedience but a passionate obedience. He loves to see people who live to be obedient!
There’s a story in the Bible about a guy who brings a woman into the Israelite camp in front of everyone after God just told them not to be linked to those women, so another guy named Phinehas immediately gets up with a spear and goes after this guy and kills him and the woman with him. This causes God to turn His wrath away from Israel because God saw that there was someone who still cared about God’s words and took them to heart.
“Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites because he was zealous among them with My zeal, so that I did not destroy the Israelites in My zeal. Therefore declare: I grant him My covenant of peace.”
Numbers 25:11-12
Now, if think about the guy who got killed, his name was Zimri, he probably just figured “so what” I like this woman so I’m going to hang out with her and be with her. That was most likely his attitude. He saw what God did. He heard what God said. And He still went ahead and did his own thing. He didn’t care.
On the flip side we see that this infuriated a young man and compelled him to take action immediately.
One man was apathetic to God and the other took that assault personally.
There are two types of “Christians” in the church. Apathetic ones and one’s who take God seriously. And it shows.
God grants Phinehas a promise of peace.
While God is pleased to see Zimri struck down.
God is pleased with the passion of Phinehas but for Zimri who could care less about what God said God watched as he was speared to death without mercy.
Why was one man apathetic and another man passionate?
I think it’s about the way these two men lived their lives. The habits they invested in. If you keep doing whatever you want you start to just feel okay about it. But if you live in the presence of God where correction and rebuke are commonly given, you have a different perspective on what’s right and wrong—namely you have God’s perspective. One man saw his actions as totally fine and acceptable because he lived a life of being the judge of things while the other man saw an atrocious crime against God’s honor and it angered him enough to slay the man on the spot.
What perspective do you live by?
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