WHOLEHEARTED

Matthew 22:37 “You must love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”

One of the key ingredients in a Christian’s life is passion. Not passion for worldly things, but a true heartfelt passion for Jesus. A passion that burns on the inside and consumes our thought processes, consumes our decision making, consumes our worship, consumes our emotions and will.

We have passion for our friends, passion for our animals, passion for our computers and other realities of life. We must have passion for God. Passion is an abandoned display of emotion such as love, joy, etc. It denotes strong feeling, fervor, enthusiasm and zeal.

Passion does not operate out of obligation. Passion operates as a result of agape love. Passion loves and serves because it wants to, not because it has to. Passion is serving God because there is nothing else that we would rather be doing. There is no passion without relationship. Passion always has a direct object. Passion is focused on a person or thing. Passion is energized by a person or thing. You can’t love a person that you don’t know. Knowing Jesus is essential to a passionate relationship with Him. Any hindrances to that relationship must be dealt with. Sins must be confessed. Passion for Jesus cannot be earned, but comes to us instead as a gift.

Passion for Jesus is all about relationship. The Lord is calling out to you today. He desires to have a relationship with you forever. Not a one night stand, but a lifelong relationship of commitment, love and passion. If you will respond to His call, he will satisfy your every need. He will be your Father, your lover and your friend.

Passion is something that has to be cultivated and guarded. The enemy will do everything he can to discourage us from falling totally in love with Jesus. He will tell us we are too vocal about our faith. The Devil is a deceiver and a liar. He doesn’t want any of us to enjoy our Christianity. He will do everything in his power to distract us from achieving and performing our eternal purpose on this earth. Have you ever wondered what happened to your passion?

It is true that the reality of our daily lives can dull our passions. We can get so caught up with just getting by that the necessary cultivation of our passions gets pushed to the back burner. It is up to us to stir these things up within us. Let us never get tired of pursuing God. The key for each of us is to be sure that we make a conscious effort to obey the most important commandment, which is found in our scripture. Our heart, our soul, and our mind must be guarded and checked. We must ask, “Am I giving him my all?” The answer to the question can often be found in an assessment of our priorities and our daily activities. As we place “our all” into living for God, we will grow in a deeper relationship with him. Then our lives will be more rich and full than we could ever imagine.