I was talking with my hairdresser the other day. Her husband is a protestant pastor of a non denominational church. She is the worship leader along with her grown sons who all sing and play an instrument to lead the music ministry. Her and I always have great conversations regarding faith and spirituality. She is such a strong prayer warrior for souls and I can always count on her for spiritual strength.
So I shared with her, “You know my churches are in the surrounding country side, while your church is in the city, so it is very hard to gather our members together during the week.” She replied, “Yes, we have the opposite problem—we’re always looking for members because there’s too many churches nearby. It actually gets competitive, but that’s not a bad thing.” I agreed. “We want members, we are jealous for God’s people.” Incidentally I had just been reading about Elijah There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant…” 1 Kings 19
And I understand that feeling when God gives you a heart for His people. It’s not that you want to care so much, it’s that it is a strong conviction to care so much and it at times consumes you to pray for souls-when I’m in a grocery store line for the cashier, at a restaurant for the waitress, when I’m at Mass for souls from past or people I’ve just met, for the person in the car next to me, for the homeless person on the sidewalk, for a random person who has died on my feed, when I wake up at random in the late hours of the night, it is a constant desire to want them to have their eternity with God.
I am hoping many other Christians will arrive at this conviction-to have a jealousy for the Lord-the only kind of jealousy necessary and acceptable.