Keep Your Mind Ready to Act

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

I like the way The Amplified Bible renders this passage: “Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.”

In the original Greek this verse is a delicious juxtaposition of seemingly oppositional words. If it were to be translated literally it would go something like this: With all speed and dispatch don’t be tardy in your soul; bring to a boil your desire to slave and serve for the Lord.

We need to get revved up so that we won’t be slow to respond to the Spirit’s prompting. That battle to renew our minds continues.  The first reaction to hearing from God is to doubt.  That is followed closely by us questioning God as to the wisdom of our orders.

Moses thought that God had chosen the wrong man for the task of liberating the Jews from under the yoke of the Pharaoh.  He came up with all sorts of excuses why he wasn’t the right man for the job.

Gideon wasn’t exactly impressed when the angel of the Lord called him to save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites.  The first words out of his mouth were “But Lord,” followed by a litany of excuses.

Of course, let’s not forget Jonah’s 180 when God told him to go to Niniveh. He ran away and then argued the wisdom of God’s plan to give an undeserving people an opportunity to escape destruction.

Even Peter had to be convinced to go preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Are we so different?  I think not.  We go through so many mental gyrations in our heads just to make sure we are hearing God correctly. We would rather bring things to a slow burn than to a full boil. When you bring things to a boil it means that you are ready to do something. The time for preparation and figuring out what ingredients to use is over and now it’s time to cook. We need to be ready to serve at a moment’s notice. Instead, we want to think it over and see if it fits in with our plan and our timetable.

Our service needs to be that of a slave. While this practice was usually the result of enemy soldiers defeated in combat being pressed into slavery, many Jews would enter into contracts in which they made themselves someone’s slave in order to pay a debt for which they had no other means of repayment. Sometimes at the end of that contract (which could be no longer than 6 years) the slave would decide that even though their debt was repaid they wanted to commit themselves to serve this master for the rest of their lives. This was done out of love and allegiance not out of obligation. At this point they became bondservants. There was a bond between the master and the servant that went beyond that of master and slave. The servant’s ear would be pierced by putting his ear to a post and boring it with an awl and an earring that carries the master’s symbol was put on the servant’s ear.  This meant that from now on this servant was authorized to conduct business on behalf of his master. By the way this practice is what gives rise to the expression “give ear” in the Bible if you ever wondered.  It means more than “listen”.  It means to give yourself fully forever as a bondservant would.

1 Cor 7:22 “For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave.”

John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Christ has made us free, but as a token of our love and devotion we freely choose to be His bondservants. When we become His bondservants we are always at the ready to do His bidding because a bondservant subordinates his will to that of his master. That is why the words “no” or “but” should never precede the word “Lord”.

Keep the water boiling, you never know when it will be time to cook