Romans 12:11 Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward Him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you with excitement as you serve Him. [TPT]
A three by two-foot picture of Joe Paterno leading his team into the Penn State stadium hangs proudly in my brother-in-law’s living room. Individual photos of each one of the siblings and their families wearing some kind of Penn State regalia grace the dining room wall. And every Saturday in the fall we drag out our Penn State apparel and cheer on the Nittany Lions. You might guess….we are…Penn State football fans.
Even though I never attended Penn State, I might be the worst fanatic of us all. (My husband thoroughly indoctrinated me after we moved here from Florida). Once after a winning game, my then 4-year-old grandson, watching the game on TV from Rhode Island, told his mom, “I bet Grandma’s happy!” If you think I’m trying to pass on the indoctrination, you would be right.
One year, the ladies in our church gathered with a few other churches for a weekend ladies retreat where I would be the speaker Saturday night. The event was held at a hotel, a hotel with TVs in the rooms, of course. Penn State was playing that afternoon, and I happened to meander into one of the girls’ rooms where they were watching the game. I couldn’t hold back my enthusiasm. I cheered and yelled and basically made an idiot out of myself.
Afterwards, I felt a bit embarrassed, but also challenged. Why don’t I express that much zeal for Jesus? So when I got up to speak that night, I asked the ladies to show as much excitement about the Lord as I did for the PSU football team. I divided the room in half and instructed one side to yell, “We are….” And the other side was to respond, “The bride of Christ!”
That night about 100 ladies became cheerleaders for Christ!
Paul admonished believers to never lose their zeal for God. I love how The Passion Translation puts it: “Keep your passion toward him boiling hot. Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let him fill you with excitement as you serve him!”
Let’s follow that admonition. Let’s not let our love for Jesus grow cold. Because “We are….the bride of Christ!”