Passion - Wikipedia says it is an intense emotion, compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. What are you passionate about? Your family? Your job? Your cause? What about your faith?
A status that has been circulating on Facebook lately filled me with conviction! It says, "I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like our cell phone? What if we carried it everywhere we went, flipped through it throughout the day, and went home to get it if we forgot it? What if we received messages from the text, couldn't live without it, gave it to kids as gifts, and used it in case of emergency?" Are we as passionate about our Bibles as we are our cell phones? Our cars? Our hobbies?
My daughter and I had a discussion the other day as we were driving. I was telling her that there were people that I had known throughout my life who seemed to always be living close to God. They were GENUINE! What separated them from people who called themselves Christians, but went through ups and downs? What is the key to remaining close to the Lord? How do we STAY in that place where our sanctuary is found in Him? We passed a church whose sign read, "If God seems far away, who moved?" It's obvious - but how do we keep from moving when we are pulled in so many different directions in life? The one thing that those true saints had that others didn't was definitely passion! They were so passionate about their faith. They had such a love for their risen Lord! They had a burden for sinners and spent time in prayer and praise.
I read recently that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, made the great discovery - that "without holiness no one can see the Lord" (Heb 12:14). This he understood to mean that unless a person had purity of heart and life, entrance into heaven would be forfeited. Fearing for his soul, Wesley started to systematically and methodically structure his life around the great goal of taking time to be holy. What a worthy goal!
My family just started reading the book of Revelation for our family devotions. In Chapter 2, John writes a letter to the Church at Ephesus. He mentions all the things they are doing right. Then he tells them about their one downfall – they have lost their first love – the passion they had for Christ at the beginning. In verse 5, he tells them to 1) Remember – what their relationship with Christ had been. 2) Repent – turn and head back to their first love, and 3) Repeat – do the first works – do again the steps of discipleship they took as new believers. David Jeremiah, in his Study Guide to Escape the Coming Night, says, “Trust that your obedience to do the “first works” will be followed by a heart that gets emotionally excited once again."
Thinking about these things gives me a yearning to be alone with God. It makes me hungry for the things of the Lord. It brings to mind Psalm 42:1, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." The Psalms also tell us "he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things." (Psalm 107:9) And Matthew 7:7 reminds us that all we need do is, "Ask and it will be given to you." I have found that sometimes, when we are feeling dry and spiritually thirsty, we need to ask God to give us a hunger and thirst for His word. Just ask... and it will be given.
I am convinced, that if Christians would passionately pray to hunger and thirst after righteousness, the Revival we have so fervently been praying for would come. Lives would change, families would change, communities would change, our country would change ... the world would never be the same!
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the eager crowd, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (Matthew 5:6) Think for a moment about those words. Why would Jesus use the idea of hunger and thirst to refer to a yearning for righteousness? Because those are ideas we can all relate to! Who among us has never been hungry? Who has not said, "I'm dying of thirst!" In Clarke's Commentary on the Bible, he says, "When the uneasy sensation termed hunger takes place in the stomach, we know we must get food or perish. When the soul is awakened to a tense of its wants, and begins to hunger and thirst after righteousness or holiness, which is its proper food, we know that it must be purified by the Holy Spirit, and be made a partaker of that living bread, or perish everlastingly. Now, as God never inspires a prayer but with a design to answer it, he who hungers and thirsts after the full salvation of God, may depend on being speedily and effectually blessed or satisfied, well-fed, as the word "filled" implies." The Greek word interpreted “filled” in this verse literally means “completely satisfied” or “saturated”.
As I write this, I am dealing with conviction and fight back tears of repentance. I WANT that hunger and thirst! I want to be filled. I want to return to my first love! Lord, that you would give me a passion for you!
NOTE: To read the whole September issue of Beyond the Pew, you may download a low res PDF file here.
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