Experiencing God's Presence #361

Experiencing God's Presence #361

The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

Isaiah 9:7

God is passionate. Scripture speaks of His zeal and His delight on many occasions, always involving His purposes for His people. When He gives a promise or a prophecy, He watches over His word to perform it. Many of His promises and prophecies are conditional: they require some response on our part in order for them to be fulfilled. But some promises, like the coming of the Messiah and His government having no end, are unilateral purposes that could never be thwarted. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish His purposes.

Just as God is zealous about His big-picture plans, He is passionate about His purposes for your life too. He prepares good works for you to step into. He guides your steps even when you aren’t aware of it. He redeems your mistakes and actually weaves them into His overall plan to bring glory out of them. Yes, it’s possible to rebel or ignore God long enough to miss some of what He has planned, but any heart that is inclined toward Him will be led deeper into His purposes. The more zealously you pursue Him, the more zealously He guarantees that you will fulfill His designs for you. And when the zeal of the Lord guarantees something, it’s unstoppable.

Seek the Lord’s will, but not with the attitude that finding it and doing it all depends on you. It doesn’t. When you focus on Him, He focuses on your issues, your longings, and His plans for you. When you trust, He proves trustworthy. When you have faith in what He has said, what He has said begins to shift from potential to manifested experience. His zeal will accomplish His purposes—for the world and for you.

Lord, teach me to trust in Your zeal for my life—to know that Your purposes cannot be thwarted. In Your presence, let me feel Your passion for me, for the world, and for all of Your purposes.