Passionate Faith
Passion. The word often evokes negative connotations of lurid activities and forbidden fruits.
But God made us to be passionate people, uniquely wiring us to feel and emote. And contrary to popular advise to ignore our feelings, it is precisely out of these passions that we act. Simply put, we ultimately do what we desire.
The question then becomes not should we be passionate – because we’re all indeed passionate about something – but what are we passionate about.
Passionate /ˈpaSH(ə)nət/: adj. having, showing, or expressing strong emotions or beliefs. “marked by intense or strong feeling”
When observing the church, particularly in the West, it seems as though we have lost our passion for God. No doubt this is a broad brush description and does not include everyone.
But for many of us, we have been dulled by duties and distracted with diversions. Maybe, like me, you’ve found that apathy has crept in unexpectedly, like an an unwanted visitor in the middle of the night.
If so, you’re not alone! Life has a way of stripping us of our passion for God.
And yet intuitively, we know there is more. We hunger for more. More of God’s nearness and sweet presence. More of holiness and faithfulness in our lives. More intensity in our affections, more drive in our diligence, more joy in our journey.
We know we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts (Kardia), not just with a small segment of ourselves. Jesus taught us inasmuch (Matt. 22:37; Mk. 12:30; Luke 10:27). And in doing so he reaffirmed the primary oath of loyalty every Hebrew would have known and often recited (Duet. 6:4ff).
For the average Hebrew listener the heart (or more properly the kidneys in the Old Testament) was the seat of the emotions. It was the place where a person felt all the feels, willed to act, and even pondered life (Prov. 23:7).
The heart is where our passions and our plans intersect, where desires and decisions are formed.
Faith. The very essence of the Christian life is that of faith. Not only is faith the means by which we receive salvation (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 10:9-10), it is also the means by which we are sustained (Heb. 3:14; Matt. 10:22; 24:13).
Faith /fāTH/: noun. a complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
As it relates to the Christian life, faith is a firm confidence in what cannot be seen, but what we surely have (Heb. 11:1). Our faith is not merely a set of facts in which we believe, although that is certainly a part of it (Jude 1:3). Faith is a person, in Jesus Christ himself (John 1:12, 11:26, 14:1).
So if we are to walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7) and not according to the flesh with its passions (Rom. 8:1-4; Gal. 5:16, 24), we must be ruled by another kind of passion – a passion for Christ.
In short, we must have a passionate faith else our unruly passions will rule us and overturn our faith.
So if you desire more in your relationship with God, if you long for deeper intimacy with Christ, if you are wrestling in your walk, join me on this journey as we look into what it means to live with passionate faith.
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