Romans 12:11

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

We all desire to be zealous for God but sometimes consistent motivation seems to be elusive. At times we feel guilty when reminiscing about our young-Christian days. Other times we rationalize our condition with thoughts of how busy our lives are now.

But we can renew our zeal, achieve great victories for God and still live balanced and responsible yet sacrificial lives.

Let us gain hope from the example of an outstanding disciple. Albert Ramsey is married and a parent of two children. He manages Abijah’s career and Premium Entertainment, a company that aims to boost disciples’ entertainment careers. Albert also serves on the church’s board and leads the Children’s Church ministry with his wife.

Even with this great amount responsibility he makes time to disciple others, share his faith and study the Bible with friends. Despite how complicated his life is, he has personally met and baptized Michael Coleman, now a minister, Garnett Tucker, head Usher for

Portmore, Jermain Smith, an outstanding young Christian, Hansel Peters from Portmore, Roger and Marcia Lindsey, the 1st disciples from Lucea. Talk about “Bearing fruit that will last”!

Albert’s strength is his consistency and gratitude to God. He shows by his example that we can responsibly balance zealous service to God and others with our personal responsibilities.

All disciples desire to achieve great things for God but are hampered many times by wrong motivation or no motivation at all. Has your devotion to God been mixed with or replaced by selfish ambition, pride, habit, people-pleasing, leader-pleasing or just plain heartlessness? It is a more serious problem than those affected by impure motivation realize.

What does the Bible say about having the right motivation?

1 Corinthians 4:5

Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

1 Chronicles 28:9

….acknowledge the Lord…and serve him with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

James 4:3

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

God searches every heart to figure out the purity and wholeheartedness of its devotion. Wholeheartedness causes God to desire a relationship with us.

Motives will be a criterion for judgment, it gives us the ability to “spend what we get” in godly ways and it determines the effectiveness of our prayers.

A Determined Faith

by Angela Hamilton

Wayne Thorne is far from being your typical campus student. At 25, he is raising four younger brothers, he is a full-time student, has a full-time job and leads a Bible Talk of five members.

Initially, the ambitious UTech student was focused on serving God and getting his diploma. However, a year ago he was confronted with a challenge – one that Wayne now says “is definitely God’s will”.

Last May he decided to get a job to help his mother support his four younger brothers, although he was taking seven UTech courses that semester and was about to embark on his final exams. Soon after he started working, his mother decided that she could better provide for the family if she worked in the United States.

Wayne was left to care for four boys, aged 6 to 14. “All of a sudden I was big brother, father and mother all in one,” he says. “I have to see to their homework, make sure they study, prepare them for school, give them lunch money and buy school books.”

In order to have three “free days” for himself he works three 12-hour shifts and a half-day each week. “I work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Then I go home, prepare the boys for school, get some sleep and later go on campus for classes and my ministry. When I’m on the day shift, my classmates take notes for me and explain what took place in class.”

He remembers when all his brothers became ill. “I was up and down with them at the doctor, filling prescriptions and doing everything.”

The pressure of this responsibility soon proved onerous for the campus student and he became bitter. “I was angry with my mother, my father (who left when he was very young) and with God.”

It was then Wayne says he began fully appreciate and value the friendships that he has in the Kingdom. “The brothers would come over and encourage me. They helped the boys with their homework and they spent time with them. Friendships made the difference,” he says. Soon one of his brothers, Adrian, started studying the Bible and was baptized.

Wayne notes that his Region Leader was also supportive and sensitive towards his situation and appointed a Bible Talk Assistant to help him. He also stresses the importance of his personal Bible study and his many prayers to God for strength.

Now he has only one year left to finish school and is looking forward to starting the Degree programme. His mother even visited and remarked how responsible he had become and the difference that being a disciple had made in his life.

Wayne says he could not have weathered the storm without God’s help and that of his Brothers in Christ. He is convinced that God made him go through the situation to impact his family and to help him grow spiritually. And he is determined to.