Passion

by HJS

For what do you really have passion? Nobody succeeds at anything for which they do not have passion.

Jesus was challenged by a man who was sent by the Pharisees to test Him, saying that the greatest command in the Bible is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). Eugene Peterson paraphrases His words, saying, "Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence" (The Message).

Thinking about your priorities and passions, the things that really drive you, how great is your passion for God? The very question may create some concern in your heart because we often think of individuals who have a passion for God as being somewhat eccentric.

But what of a businessman who has a passion for knowing God and believes that what drives him to know God also energizes him to do what he believes God wants him to do? That passion for God is manifested in his work ethic that makes him succeed where others fail. He remembers Paul's admonition, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Colossians 3:23).

Loving God with passion means making Him a priority, not a possibility, and taking time to nourish a relationship with Him each day. It means you do a better job of whatever it is you have been called to. Without passion driving your life, you will never succeed at anything. But when you make knowing God a priority, you will discover that passion for God is a flame that cannot be extinguished, a light that cannot be turned off, and a love that will never be disappointed.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.  PHILIPPIANS 3:13