Zealous believers sometimes do not act from a place of knowledge.
I’d rather not be fanatically zealous and focus my mind on the Word and the knowledge that works than be everywhere, “shouting” down things that I do not have a proper understanding of.
There is this tendency to mistake religiosity for zeal.
What some believers have is a religious character, not pure zeal for God and the church.
I chose to call it “character” to strip it of its “spirituality” and actually see it for what it is. It is often more of a mind thing than a “spiritual” thing. The religious character relies heavily on what makes sense and would fight, almost by default, what does not appeal to the senses. The religious character can be heavily dependent on logic, even when the person does not realise it. And although many people don’t see it this way, there can sometimes be a thin line between the religious heart and the person who relies solely on logic to explain everything.
Both want certainty. Both want a framework that makes sense of reality. One may accept that God exists and then attempt to reduce God to a system that can be fully controlled and explained. The other may reject God because God does not fit into the system they have decided is acceptable.
Both can become trapped by the limits of their own minds. And that is the problem.
Human beings were not created merely to argue about whether God exists or does not exist. There is something within humanity that constantly reaches beyond itself.
We ask where we came from.
We ask why we are here.
We ask what happens after death.
We look at creation and wonder whether there is something—or Someone—behind it.
For me, the question is not simply whether there is a God.
The deeper question is: If there is a God, who is he?
And what does he want with us?
That is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture.
Jesus is the perfect representation of the One who made us. He is the clearest revelation of what God is like. And as Jesus Christ comes into the picture, we move ahead to realise that our relationship with our Creator has been restored through him. And from that point, we learn to trust him enough to live for him.
This is where the religious mind often struggles to move beyond. The religious mind does not want to agree that living for God is a partnership with the Spirit. It would rather accomplish everything by itself.
It will try. And try. And try.
And when it cannot sustain the life it thinks God demands, it falls into guilt. But the guilt does not always lead to genuine repentance and transformation. So, the person returns to the same methods that produced the failure in the first place.
More effort. More promises. More rules. More self-hatred.
And eventually, another failure.
Then the cycle begins again.
This person can remain in that cycle for a very long time until they learn to trust in the grace that saved them. Our partnership with God in living his life is very organic. By that, I mean it is both rooted in truth and personally lived.
Some things are clear. The Scriptures teach them.
Love.
Forgiveness.
Integrity.
Faith.
Grace.
The character of Christ.
These are not things we need to invent. They are laid out for us.
But then there is the personal journey of learning to walk with God.
How do you apply wisdom to this relationship?
How do you respond to this decision?
What do you do when you have two good options in front of you?
How do you navigate a situation that Scripture does not address word for word?
This is where maturity becomes personal. Sometimes the instruction will not come to you as a verse written verbatim on a page. Sometimes it comes as wisdom or conviction, through counselling or by experience.
As believers, we must trust that God’s Spirit can lead us. But we also learn to discern that not every thought in our mind is an instruction from God.
But the fact that discernment is necessary should not make us afraid of being led.
Sometimes God’s leading may not be convenient or conventional. It may not be popular. It may even seem strange to the people around you. But when you trust the One who is leading you, you learn to follow him without needing to control every detail before you take the next step.
One of the results of growth is peace for your soul and freedom from unnecessary struggles.
Many of the things you struggle with may not be solved by finding one clearly written verse that addresses your exact situation. But as you grow, you can receive wisdom and direction that, almost “miraculously,” puts an end to struggles that once seemed impossible to overcome.
But many are AFRAID.
FEAR is one of the believer’s strongest opponents to that life of personalised dealings with God. Because fear always wants guarantees. Fear wants to know everything before it takes a step. Fear wants the entire map before beginning the journey.
But if you can dare to trust the Lord, you will realise that the absence—or rather, the overcoming—of fear is where the journey truly begins.
Paul wrote:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” — Galatians 2:20
We often easily understand and quote the first part of that verse:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
But we often do not pay enough attention to what follows:
“And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
The Christian life is not simply a life you are trying to perform. It is a life you are learning to live in dependence on Christ. The idea of faith here carries the sense of trusting and relying upon him.
So, you could understand the thought this way:
“So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
How then do you live for God?
By TRYING?
No. By TRUSTING.
Trust means you stop treating yourself as the source of your own transformation. It means you rely on God while actively responding to what he is doing in you.
You obey.
You learn.
You repent.
You grow.
You discipline yourself.
But you do not imagine that your efforts are what made you alive in the first place.
You are responding to grace, not trying to replace it.
You see why fear can be deadly?
You cannot fully trust someone while constantly believing they are going to abandon you. You cannot rest in grace while constantly trying to save yourself.
Trust means that when you receive an instruction—even when you don’t fully understand it—you can obey because you are relying on the One who gave the instruction.
Trusting does not mean NOT DOING ANYTHING.
It means NOT COMING UP WITH YOUR OWN WAY OF SAVING YOURSELF.
In trusting, you obey. You don’t invent another thing.
Paul goes on to say:
“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” — Galatians 2:21
The word translated “frustrate” carries the sense of setting aside, nullifying, or treating something as ineffective.
So, in essence, Paul is saying:
“My old life is gone. I now have a new life. This new life, I live it not by trying to keep the law, but by trusting God to HELP me live it. I do not set aside the grace of God that gave me the new life in the first place and start trying to do things by my own senses. If I could do things my own strength before, then why did I need Christ?”
That is the heart of it.
The religious mind will take you from the land of slavery but ensure you’re still a slave; even when you’re standing in your own free land. You may have left Egypt, but Egypt has not left your mind.
Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. He began the work. He sustains the work. And he will bring it to completion.
So, did you think such a person would leave you alone to figure everything out by yourself?
I don’t think so.