Good Saturday—Be Excited! 

Good Saturday to you! I hope you have a good weekend planned. If you know me very well, you know I tend to get a bit excited from time to time. Bob used to say “Calm down” a couple of times a week when it would be a bit over whelming for his laid back self, but I like getting excited. I like to show it when I’m on fire when my team is winning (or behind) or when I’m telling you about my God and what a difference He can make in your life because it’s for real.  


I spent some time yesterday driving back from OKC thinking about and listening to some podcasts on Romans. One thing I learned was the use of the word fervor or fervent. 

When Paul speaks about not lacking your zeal in chapter 12, but be fervent in spirit, he’s pretty much repeating himself—once in the negative and once in the positive, so it’s obviously really important—except that when he says it the second time, he gets much stronger. The word fervor actually means boiling, intensely passionate. 

“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”  Romans‬ ‭12:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Isn’t that something? Keep our spiritual intensity passionate—not just if we happen to be one of those kind of people like me (or Buddy Funk or Frank Wiley) that are excitable, but if we are a FOLLOWER of JESUS. Obviously, Paul is making a big deal here in these few words that we are to be intentionally enthusiastic and create a culture of contagious passion—it’s important. Jeremiah 29:13 tells us that we are to love the Lord not with just part of our heart, but with all of our heart—the whole entire thing.  

If you want to see people passionately loving something with their whole heart, watch a football game on TV or go to a Garth Brooks concert. Those folks are financially invested and they care about what’s happening. They talk about it, they get excited about it, and they don’t even think twice to throw their arms up in the air when their team throws the ball and catches it. We need to care about eternity like that. To be zealous and fervent about Christ like that—He alone is worthy. And He really does matter.

Gerhard Kittle (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament) says in regard to this verse that it is EVERY Christians duty to develop their energy so they stay boiling up, welling up, and springing up on the inside. Being fired up is a type of obedience, not just a personality type. 

Are you zealous today, springing up and welling up with the passion for Christ? It’s is a process to stay that way every day, isn’t it? It’s a challenge to be sure, but a worthy one. Let’s pray today for zeal and for spiritual fervor! 

Love you dear one,

Pam

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