Daily Devotionals

Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity ...so now offer them in slavery to righteousness (Romans 6:19).

The Book of Yonah (Jonah) records that when God called his prophet, "Yonah ...prepared to escape to Tarshish" (1:3). He tried to escape! As you know, Yonah wound up getting into a lot of trouble, not to mention getting into a fish. But then Adonai [the Lord] called him again. This time the Scripture says, "Yonah set out and went to Ninveh [Nineveh], as Adonai had said...." (3:3) First he prepared to escape. Then he set out and went. In other words, with the same eagerness that Yonah rebelled against God, he now obeyed.

If we want real fruitfulness and holiness in God, then we need to simply serve the Lord with the same commitment as we once served sin. When we served sin, we didn't just serve sin, we indulged in sin. We didn't do it half-heartedly, we went all the way.

We need to serve God in the same way. We must not just serve God; we need to serve him with zeal and excitement! When we obey God, we must not just obey, but do so with all our hearts. We didn't sin with half our hearts. So in the same way, we must not walk with God halfheartedly.

We once sinned with excellence; let us serve the Lord with excellence. We must never just serve the Lord, but serve the Lord with joy, delight, and all the gusto and strength we have! We were once great at serving sin. Let us be even greater at serving the living God.

...serve the Lord with zeal and excitement!

JC