Zeal

“Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.”
Romans 12:11 NLT
“never lagging behind in diligence; aglow in the Spirit, enthusiastically serving the Lord;”
Romans 12:11 AMP

In this part of Romans 12, Paul set out some quick-fire instructions, to lead and guide his readers in their Christian lives. And they are just as applicable today as they were then. The different translations for this verse bring out the importance of involving the Holy Spirit in what we do, not just as a passive Companion, with little or no influence, but in a way that fires us up, bringing enthusiasm and dedication to the task in hand.

In my contacts in the community where I live, I have met a couple of men who have never worked. Men in their forties and fifties, subsisting on benefits and other state handouts, poorly educated and without hope for the future. It was not as though they started their lives with such a lifestyle as a goal, but due to getting in with the wrong crowds at school, and discovering alcohol as a means to generate some good feelings or whatever, within them, they drifted. And it could be argued that the state benefit system here in the UK contributed to the choices they made, introducing not having to work as an option. But one man said to me recently that he wished he could get a job. There is something within him that knows what he should be doing but he lacks the motivation now to do what it takes to cast off the alcohol addiction and the other negatives in his way of life. Is he a lazy man? I wouldn’t know, but at this stage in his life it is only God who could make a difference, and there are stories of the miraculous transforming power of the Holy Spirit in lifting alcoholics out of their addiction into His wonderful life, bringing self-respect and a wonderful testimony in the process. So I pray and look to God for the opportunity to help him and bring hope to someone who is hopeless, and sadly, written off by society.

Perhaps a similar problem confronted Paul in the Roman church. What we experience today in society has always been around because it is what we call human nature. In Paul’s day there wouldn’t have been the state benefits system that we see today, because a social income was unheard of. But Paul still felt the need to confront laziness, in people perhaps doing the bare minimum to get by. In Paul’s view of society, he introduced his readers to the concept that whatever we do, we do it as to the Lord. Colossians 3:23-24, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ”. I read somewhere of a quote from Ruth Graham, the wife of the famous evangelist Billy Graham. Apparently she had a quotation pinned above the sink in her kitchen that reminded her that she was washing dishes as to the Lord. Such a view of our working lives is transformational. A bad human boss becomes irrelevant. It is God who we work for.

The story of Joseph in the latter chapters of Genesis is fascinating. Here was a man of whom it was said, “that the Lord was with him” (Genesis 39:3). Because of that, he prospered in a heathen society, bringing salvation to his people in a time of famine. In Genesis 41:41 we read, “So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.’” We know, of course, this happened, not because he worked for Pharaoh, but because he looked higher to Heavenly places and took his instructions from his Lord.

We pilgrims are more than likely employed in some capacity to other. But even in retirement, enjoying state or occupational pensions, we remember that we got here because we worked for the Lord. And we continue to give thanks for all His provision.

Dear Father God. We thank You for looking after us. Please help us to remember who supplies our every need. Amen.