Renewing the Passion

In the last few weeks I have been to several graduations. Friends are graduating high school and getting ready to start a new phase of their life. Others are graduating college and they are going to start doing what they have wanted to do for years. Most of them are very excited about the new changes to come. As I sat through several graduations I found myself praying for the graduates. I was not praying that they would have a smooth transition into school or into work, or that they would have enough money for college. I was praying that they would become more passionate for God and His church.

 You see we live in a generation that is becoming less and less passionate for God and the church. We can call ourselves “Christians” and it really doesn’t mean anything anymore. I have heard it said, “Do not look at what someone says they believe, look at what they love. That will show where their heart is.” I want to see these graduates not just hold the title Christian but to really love the church body, their fellow believers, and above all else their Savior. You will love what you are passionate about.

 I hear people say, “I just can’t find passion for anything, I am not a passionate person.” I laugh a little whenever I hear that because I believe everyone is passionate, but many times in the wrong areas. For example I know that people have passion on Sundays, they just have it during the wrong part of the day. I see people sit through church with the arms crossed mumbling along. Then they go home and turn on the football games for the afternoon. These people who barely moved in church are now jumping up and down and screaming. If people were as passionate about church as they are about football amazing things would happen. Rodney Mullins wrote a great blog post about the issue of decreasing passion in the church. I thought it would be worth including.

 Confronting Casual Christianity.

 “I believe that the greatest problem that we are facing in America is that many Christians have lost their passion for God. They no longer seek God for their purpose in life. They no longer pray with a passion or worship with a passion. They have lost whatever it was that caused them to hunger after God.

Millions are going to Hell and Christians have no or little fear of a Holy God. I have watched for years as Spirit filled Christians with a fervor for the Holy things of God walk away to a less passionate place. Hearts that once burned with a fresh fire live on a weekly religious experience of fluff and conviction less teaching. Seeker churches have produced an apathy for the power of the pentecostal experience. Thousands of one time powerful Christians have delegated their spiritual responsibilities to a few and traded their heritage for a powerless convictionless play at church.

Those precious commodities in church have become a mockery to those who laugh to scorn the Holy Spirit filled church they once loved. Church to them is just a place to go once a week to hear a soft overly protective sermon and avoid spiritual accountability while stroking their religious itch.

They have traded their passion for spiritual hymns and songs to a yearning for the mundane and earthly. They have given themselves over to denying the covenant they once had with God to spirtualized excuses for breaking that covenant. Their hearts are far from God and seem to be in love with the present world and it’s pleasures.

My heart breaks as I realize that we Christians are more to blame for being casual than sinners are for being lost. The enemy has one goal and that is to keep sinners lost and Christians ineffective. I hunger again for those day’s when the people of God were on fire with passion for him. I thirst for the time when we appreciated the conviction of the word and longed for God’s presence. I have a burning desire to see people come early and stay late in his glory and holiness.

What we need is revival. A revival that plunges us to our knees and our hearts to repentance. A revival that turns the hearts of the children to their parents and the hearts of the parents to God. A revival where spiritual accountability is sought after and the preaching of the word is loved. A revival where we will seek to please the Lord and not the desires of our flesh. A revival of lasting and life changing results.”

How do we become more passionate? Unfortunately there is not a “Three easy steps to becoming a more passionate Christian” to guide us. However, there are things that will make us more passionate. I said earlier that you will love what you are passionate about. It goes the other way too. You will be passionate about what you love. The more you love God and His church the more passion you will have.

• Study the Bible, not to just check it off your list of things to do for the day, but because of a yearning to know God more.  
• Pray all throughout the day so you are always in communication with your heavenly Father.
• Read Christian books to expand your knowledge and to grow, but do not let it replace the Word.
• Get connected in a church, not just on Sunday mornings but throughout the week.

C. J. Mahaney said, “To grow in your passion for what Jesus has done, increase your understanding of what He has done.” Let us reverse the trend of passionless Christians and rise up to be who God has called us to be.