How Passionate Are You For Jesus?Sample

THE PASSIONLESS SOUL 

In a program called Fox Cricket Podcast, former Australian Cricket Captain, Allan Border, lauded the passion with which Virat Kohli, the current Indian Cricket Captain plays. He said, “I haven’t seen anyone sort of carry on so much as a captain when his side takes a wicket.

It’s really over the top but it’s good in a way. You can see some passion about what he’s trying to do… If you look at this Indian side, he’s probably the only one that has the character to get really animated” (Indian Express, December 20, 2018). 

How passionate are you for the Lord Jesus? The Psalmist had such a genuine passion for the Living God. His passion for God oozes as he says, “As the deer pants for streams of water so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him?” (Psa. 42:1). The Psalmist’s passion for God was so intense that he wrote, “O God, you are my God, I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water” (Psa. 63:1). The Psalmist’s immense passion for God could not be missed when you read these his words: “The one thing I ask of the Lord – the thing I seek the most – is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psa. 27:4). The Psalmist was so much in love with his God he could say, “My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises!” (Psa. 119:48). 

What about us? Remember the early days of our conversion to Christ? Raising early to spend time with the Lord was a delight in those good old days. Memorizing Scripture verses was something we loved to do, then. We loved to stay up late and study the Bible, not to prepare a message but for the mere pleasure of hearing God speak to us! We did not drag our feet when it came to telling others about Jesus. We hated sin hard and wanted to have nothing to do with it. But as the days rolled, it became different. We enjoyed temptation perhaps! The longing for the return of Jesus slowly but surely got evaporated! The one thing we perhaps seek now is perhaps our work, our ministry, our entertainment or whatever! Yes, there was a time when we were crazy for God! But now we are perhaps drowsy in our walk with Him! Sure enough, there were days when we were insane for Jesus! But now it could be true that our relationship with Him is inert. There were periods in our life, when we could be called ‘lunatic’ Christians. But the dismal truth perhaps is this that we are now ‘lukewarm’ Christians! We have perhaps come to a stage in life where like Elijah we speak of the zeal we had for the Lord in the past-tense (“I have zealously served the Lord God almighty!” – I Kings 19:10). Perhaps our obedience to God comes from a sense of duty. It does not come from a sense of delight perhaps. We may be like the people of Israel during Prophet Amos’ time who were waiting for the Sabbath to get over so that they could return back to their businesses (Amos 8:5).