Passion

 One definition for passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion. This could be good or bad depending on what a person is passionate about. A person passionate about sin and sinning will find a path of destruction. A person passionate about knowing and following the Lord Jesus will lead to a full and abundant life. I am advocating for passion in knowing and following Jesus. 

I heard a worship song with the following words in them a long time ago; Give me one holy passion, give me one magnificent obsession, ... to know and follow hard after you. When I heard that song it expressed the deepest longing in my soul. I have many shortcomings. I am not the most eloquent. I am not the most diplomatic. I certainly am not the most educated. The one thing God seemed to give me a double portion of is passion. I feel a passion for God far beyond what I can express in words. When I preach and teach, I feel the truth in my soul as much or more than just in my head. Brenda says when I preach and teach, that I do so with my whole body. 

How can every true child of God NOT be boiling with passion for Him and His word? It boggles my mind how much lukewarmness exists in the houses of God today. Nothing should stir us more or deeper than getting to pursue knowing God day in and day out. He invites us to know Him. To pursue Him. To follow hard after Him. This is the greatest adventure or quest any of us could take. Knowing God is far different from knowing about God. 

There are scores of people sitting in church houses who have spent decades learning about God. They know many of the Bible stories by heart because they have heard them over and over again. Sadly they are apathetic, lifeless, passionless, and not pleasing to the Lord. Bible study and worship are boring to many of these people. How could that be? The simple answer is that they aren't living in a dynamic and growing relationship with the Lord. They may keep a religious routine weekly, but that does not mean they are communing with the Lord. The same is true of many preachers. Even though they open the Bible to study for messages, they do not all read devotionally and they visit the prayer closet infrequently. Few even notice the sham. 

When I get around passionate seekers of God, I see something different in them. They have a spiritual depth, a diligent focus, sanctified priorities, and they talk of God encounters that are foreign to most, but a available to us all. Passion is the zeal to not be satisfied with current levels of knowledge of the Holy One. Passion gets a person up early to turn those pages in the Bible ravenously eating up the truth. Passion is locking out all other distractions as one goes to the secret place for serious prayer. Passion is spending as much time listening in prayer as asking. Passion is taking the fresh revelation of God and sharing it with others in a gospel witness, a Bible study group, a testimony, or with a family member or close friend. 

Don't substitute passion for mere emotionalism. Many get emotional in worship. My great Uncle Buddy, who was a Nazarene preacher, often told me, "I don't care how high you jump on Sunday, how straight do you walk on Monday through Saturday." Emotions wear off. Passion is fueled by the fresh fire of new God encounters daily. Passion is needed in the pew and the pulpit today. Sometimes I wonder if the preachers really believe the things they are preaching? Do the pew dwellers really believe that they sing or hear preached. Such do not know what they are missing. They settle when they were created by a passionate God for people who would follow Him with passion.

Passion is dripping off the verses of Psalm 42:1-2. Like a dear longing for drink of water, our hearts should long for our God. Nothing or no-one can satisfy like He does. Will we ask Him to fill us with passion. To pursue Him with passion. To serve and worship with passion. To follow Him all our days with passion. He deserves all of that and more.