WHERE IS THE ZEAL AND JOY OF THE LORD?

Recently, I watched a couple programs on a TV channel (JUICE) on Sunday morning February 22, 2015 while not in church because of inclement weather.  One was the Ramp (Karen Wheaton is the Lead person in this movement) with many young people and a young preacher who was preaching zealously and joyously.  The other program was Amplify with a worship team including Darlene Zschech and Israel Houghton.  The worship team was involved zealously and joyously singing and proclaiming that Jesus would drive back the darkness and bring healing, light and salvation.  The audience of about 500-600 young people in each meeting were actively involved zealously and joyously rejoicing and worshipping the Lord.  I watched intently and somewhat convicted as the young preacher on The Ramp zeroed in on zealously and joyously preaching Christ while the young people watched and rejoiced exuberantly.  As I listened, I found myself being fed by this young preacher who brought out many examples in the Old Testament and paralleled them typifying Christ and His better and complete work.  He referred to Hebrews several times in his message.  At some point during the preaching and worship, I looked over at my wife and said, "I remember some times of zealous and joyous preaching and worship."  She nodded and replied, "Yes, I enjoy those times."  I asked myself the question, "Where is the zeal and joy of the Lord today?"

I was blessed as I continued to watch the young preacher and worshippers and began to reminisce about some days gone by in my youth at my home church of how we rejoiced zealously and joyously.  I also reminisced of a trip I made to Uganda, Africa in January 2014 and the Church of God of Prophecy National Convention.  The people there were and are so zealous and full of joy.  They were then and are not now well off with this worlds material goods.  They live in meager dwellings and eat day by day mostly on what they grow.  They have few of the so called modern day conveniences and most have no running water and electricity but their relationship with the Lord is one of zeal and joy.  Now I am not presuming that the zeal and joy of the Lord are produced because a person is poor, uneducated or ignorant.  Yet, I realize that there are things and stuff that can stifle the zeal and joy of the the Lord in a person's life.  Jesus gave one illustrative example (Luke 8:14) that can stifle His zeal and His joy to produce His life and fruitfulness in ours.  So, my question is simply, "where is the zeal and joy of the Lord?"  

I firmly believe we need the zeal and joy of the Lord in our daily lives.  When there is a passion for God and His work there will be the zeal and joy of the Lord to fulfill it.  Jesus had passion for His Father's will and the zeal to perform what His Father desired.  He had a zeal for the house of God and desired God's house to be a house of prayer so much until he went in and drove out profiteers with a small scourge or whip like instrument.  He turned over the tables and declared, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves (Matt. 21:12-14).  His Father's will was His desire and He knew that the Father desired the house of God to be a house of prayer.  Where is the zeal and joy of the Lord today?

Jesus went through agony and suffering but His outlook was one of joy throughout the shame of a horrible beating, humiliating treatment and crucifixion.  He focused on His Father's present will and to the future.  He saw those who would be saved and delivered from the throes of sin.  The joy set before Him was enlarged far beyond the shame and suffering he endured on the cross (Hebrews 12:2).  As we serve, worship and love the Lord and His will in our lives there is a zeal and joy which motivates and moves us into action.  Where is the zeal and joy in the Lord?  It is in Him, Christ our Redeemer, Deliverer and Savior.  Our relationship with Him brings a passion that produces a zeal to love and serve him and the joy comes as He abides in us, us in Him and we walk in His will. 

Jesus was the supreme example in portraying the zeal and joy of the Lord.   It was the occasion when he went into the temple after making a scourge of small cords and driving out the money changers that the "disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up (John 2:15-18).  The zeal that moved Jesus was not emotional existentialistic emptiness and ignorance.  The zeal of the Lord of Hosts that Isaiah prophesied of gripped Him to move in the presence and power of God.  When the Holy Spirit fell on and empowered the 120 in the upper room, the zeal and joy of the Lord was evident and prevalent.  The Apostle Peter preached Christ and His resurrection with power and thousands were saved and added to the church.  Could that same zeal and joy grip us today to move in the will of the Father and in the work that Jesus, the apostles, early fathers and our modern-day fathers have left for us in these last days.  I say, YES!

YES!  Dear Lord, may the zeal and joy that gripped and engulfed Jesus and the Apostles, grip and engulf us today to fulfill your work.  May the the power of the Holy Spirit come upon us and in us until we are willing and obedient to drive out the hindering spirits that would cramp the move of God's power in our midst.  May our churches be houses of prayer seeking the zeal and joy that moves us out in our communities to people who need the Redeemer, the Deliverer, the Savior.   Dear Heavenly Father, let your zeal and joy flow in us, through us and out from us to perform your will and desires in our lives.  Amen!