Psalm 39:3
My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
David learned a valuable principle about life, and that was he learned how to motivate himself instead of waiting for the external to motivate him. He said that while he was musing the fire burned. The word musing means to meditate or think. In other words, the fire or passion inside him got hotter by how much he mused or took time to think. The more he mused, the more the fire burned. The less he thought, the less the fire burned. David learned that it did not matter what the outside circumstances were; he could motivate and stir himself by musing.
One of the things that I have learned through life is how to motivate myself. There are times when I need to be angry at sin, so I must motivate myself to be angry at sin. There are times when I need to be compassionate, so I stir myself to be compassionate. There are times when I need to be caring, so I stir myself to be caring. There are times when I need God’s truths to blossom in my heart so I can help others, so I stir myself to let those truths blossom. How do I stir myself? I stir myself by thinking. I know what I need to think about to stir me to be what I need to be for God, and I think about it. The more I think about it, the more passionate I become about what I am thinking.
People say, “I’m just not a loving person.” No, you are not a thinking person. If you learned how to stir yourself to love by thinking, you could love people at any time. People say, “I’m just not the compassionate type.” No, you are not the thinking type. Anyone can be anything that God needs them to be if they learned to stir themselves about what they should be by musing about it. It is easy for me to be compassionate for the souls of men when I spend time thinking about people burning in Hell; the more I think about it, the more passionate I become about reaching the souls of mankind. It is easy for me to hate sin and not the sinner when I think about what sin has done to those I love, and it stirs me to hate sin more. The key to being passionate about serving God all the time is not to wait on the external to stir you, but to think yourself to be passionate for God by musing.
Now, you will not muse if you don't spend time alone. One reason many never stir themselves is because they are not alone to spend time to think. All of my books that are written were composed while I was alone thinking. The sermons I preach are put together while I am alone. If you must always be with people, you will never be a person who muses, and if you never muse, the fire for God will never burn in your heart.
Moreover, you will not muse if you don't learn to shut down the noise around you. Too many people need noise to function, and the noise is what keeps them from thinking. You cannot think if your television is on all the time. You cannot think if you always have music playing. Always needing noise to be in the background is what keeps most from spending time musing, which keeps them from having a passion for God.
Having a burning passion for God and the things He wants us to be is accomplished by stirring yourself through musing. If you need the external to stir you, you will be dependent on the external to be passionate for God. If you learn to muse to stir yourself, you can be passionate for God at any time by stopping to muse.