Romans 12:11

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Of late, my greatest fear is spiritual burn out.  So I took another look at this verse that I've read a thousand times and noticed something new about it.  

Romans 12:11 is not a suggestion.

It's obvious, I know, but take another look.  It doesn't say, "Serve the Lord when you feel like it" or "Try to be excited about serving the Lord" or "Serve the Lord with Zeal on Sundays."  (I looked up ever translation I could find...it's not there)

It says "Never be."

I don't think I need to go into the nuances of the word "be."  It's about as simple as it can get, but it's preceded by the word "never."  "Never be."  (When the Bible says never, you should probably start listening.)

This is a  command.   God is commanding that you never lack zeal in serving Him.  My first reaction here is, "yeah, but what if_______."  (And these can be serious issues here, not just flippant laziness.)  What if some Earth-shattering event just took place in my life?  What if my parents just died?  What if my wife files for divorce?  What if my kids are doing drugs?  What if?  What if?

Forget all that.  There is no wiggle room here.  There's no modifier to this command.  There's no loop-hole to squirm your way through.

NEVER BE.

God is demanding that we be in constant, cheerful service of God.  He is the point of life, not your parents, not your spouse, not your kids....Him.

Take a look at Luke 9:59-62.  This is serious.  God is serious about you putting Him first, not because He's a bully or because he doesn't care about you, but because He MUST proclaim Himself as the most important thing in your life.  He must because it's the truth.  If He were to say that something else was more important, He wouldn't be God.

What do you do?  It's not possible for a man to give God a worthy share of service or the proper amount or excitement for the effort, because He's worth more than you have to give.  So, you give everything you have, beg for mercy, and thank God that he is merciful.

So, now I have that figured out, I need to go figure out what that means.