Good morning everyone,

Proverbs 19:2– It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

In getting older I can appreciate the excitement that I have for the things I want(ed) to do and accomplish. I’ve also learned that much of that excitement could be based in ignorance. The blessing of knowledge or wisdom in doing anything brings realism to the situation. Realism doesn’t have to be a "kill joy", because there are people who have a lot of knowledge and no zeal, which is a horrible witness! But knowledge is necessary because it "grounds" zeal into a truthful expectation. That is why Jesus said true worshippers worship in Spirit (zeal, passion, power) and truth (knowledge). (John 4 v23)

I believe God wants us to have zeal and passion for whatever we obey Him in doing. But we must also have knowledge to go along with that zeal and passion. We see it all the time with people training for a profession or hobby and desiring to gain more knowledge in it. Though for many people in our culture the process of gaining knowledge is not as exciting as "feeling" the zeal and passion of something. We learn an important life lesson that "zeal without knowledge" will eventually reveal our immaturity and pride.

This is why I believe God allows us to have "setbacks", fail, succeed then fail, etc. to show us that excitement and passion are good, but they must be rooted in Him. An example could be the stages of our life. We get excited about something (and rightly so!), whether it’s getting married, having kids, a new house, promotion, etc. But being naive, we believe the emotion and zeal of that event will carry us through. But how wrong we are! If we don’t seek first the Kingdom of Christ continually we won’t maintain and establish any blessing, and our zeal will wear out. Leaving us without the knowledge of how to handle these blessings and the zeal to want to take care of them as we should.

In His Love, Ld