JOHN 2:16-17

To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

TO PONDER

We don't use the word 'zeal' much any more these days. I guess we tend to have 'passion' for certain things or we become 'fans' of particular people or things. But I wanted to ask, when was the last time you felt a real 'zeal' for something; a deep passion for a particular thing or cause?

Recently we have, like every other family with teenage daughters, been experiencing a 'Taylor Swift' obsession in our household. Strangely, before she came and toured Australia we rarely heard her music or anything about her around the house. Now it's all 'Taylor this and Taylor that'. Zeal for Taylor seems to have gripped our daughter.

Likewise, the AFL has started again and zeal for the Adelaide Crows has returned to our house with a vengeance.

To an extent, these 'zeals' or 'passions' are relatively harmless. However they prompt the question, 'when was the last time you felt zeal or passion for the things of God?'

God has given us the things of this life to enjoy and to take pleasure in, but He is still to be our first love, the thing/person for which we hold the greatest zeal and passion. So if you are really into football (whichever code you prefer), or if you have some other passion that you just can't help tell others about, perhaps take a moment from time to time to check which passion your talk about the most. If it's not God and what he has done for you through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, then maybe you want to ask him to help shift your priorities.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts of this life, the things in which we find pleasure and delight. Please help me to always find my greatest delight in you and be prepared to show my zeal for you at every opportunity. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle