How many of you here today feel as though any fire that could be considered a passion has been extinguished? Your love for the activities you like to do has been wiped out and now you are working with an emptied and tired slate. Survival may be the only way of life that you reach for because trying to reach for anything more would push you beyond exhaustion. Your passion for reading the Bible and praying to God may not even be measurable. Sure, you love the Lord but you’re just fed up with all the stress, hard work, and the massive amount of life’s pressures to continue pushing forward. Sound familiar to anyone here. Doesn’t it sound amazing to have the kind of faith and passion that the people in the Bible had?
Listen to the conversation found in John 6:25-29 and I think you’ll find something very common about most Christians. After Jesus had fed the five thousand, he went to the other side of the lake to get away from the mobs of people. “When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.
How does that apply to us today? Jesus doesn’t make food directly for five thousand people at a time. We don’t chase him for a loaf of bread. However, we do chase him for many other reasons; reasons which have nothing to do with Him and everything to do with us. We run to Him when we need help but generally don’t seek Him. We run to him when we want assurance yet we ourselves are impatient with Him. We wonder about how he really will take care of us. The story on John 6 doesn’t end there. It continues by saying “They said therefore to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
A quick translation of the peoples’ last question would be, “What is the minimum we have to do to have a part in what God is doing?” What’s the bottom line in this exchange? Jesus simply says that the “work” is His work on their hearts. He doesn’t give them a bottom line. Why? Isn’t there a minimum we can do to be a part of God’s workings? The simple answer is NO! You’re either growing or dying; there isn’t a third direction. Having a passion for the things of God such as his Word and prayer cannot come from a heart that is determined to only do the minimum for God. Passionate faith comes from a God-filled life. The men in the story only wanted Jesus to fulfill their own desires. They didn’t want to give up anything but wanted to receive all the benefits. What does a God-filled life look like? We find our answer in Mark 12:28-34.
“One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your entire mind, and with all your strength.’ “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as Himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Maybe it’s time we stopped looking at what the words of the Bible say and start becoming what they describe. Passionate faith comes from a God-filled life. Passionate faith comes from God consuming every part of our lives and us becoming all the stronger for it. We say and hear these common verses and think, “Wow, yeah I need to do that.” However, it seems that we never actual do it because it seems like such a far-off reality. It’s one of those lofty goals that’s nice to dream about although we never believe we can make it. I have only one problem about this type of thinking; God never once said that these were lofty goals. God did say that he expects us to do this; “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…” No exception or way out is given in these verses. No minimum allowance was given either. God wants every part of our lives. Let’s examine how to give all four to God so that we can have passionate faith.
Heart –
Starting with a definition, we can understand exactly what God had in mind when He gave this commandment. The heart here is a translation from the word kardia; where we get the words for cardiology among other medical terms for the heart. Simply put the idea of the heart is that of the inner-most seat of the soul where emotions reside. They would have understood his command to refer to subjugating every emotion to God’s scrutiny. Every time anger, love, joy, peace, fear would all have to be put under God’s authority and given up to God’s hand for him to take care of. They knew that it meant no lashing out because their emotions were out of control. Every part of their internal life would have to be subject to God.
We as adults do this less often than teenagers; at least I hope we do. I found a recent study with earth-shaking news. It had finally found evidence that teenager’s brains aren’t fully developed and because of this they found that they rely more on emotions and less on reasoning. When I had finished reading it, I said no duh and moved on. Their most stressful years of development into mature adults happens in an environment, school, with many critical and unhelpful elements. You would be in much better hands if God were guiding your development. We as adults can’t claim that we are immune to the effects of our emotions. The damage becomes evident when we lose a loved one and our emotions start on a rollercoaster; sometimes chemical such as during pregnancy but many times a choice to not act maturely. When our spouse says something that should just be taken with a grain of salt yet we allow that to fester until our anger explodes on our spouse. Maybe they shouldn’t have said whatever they may have said but it was your responsibility to hand your emotional reaction completely over to God and not unload it on your beloved spouse.
With God, there is no minimum amount of our heart that we can give. We must give 100% of our emotions and feelings to God’s care. This includes love as well. Our love for God must be more than just puppy love. He requires that we give him all of our heart and no less. He also requires that we give him all of our soul.
Soul –
We may have a bit of trouble defining this word which basically means soul or life. The meaning of the word is derived from the context in which it is used. In the text containing the greatest commandment, little guidance is given as to what God means exactly by using this word. Though a long story, through the Greek in Luke 10:27 and the Hebrew of the corresponding Old Testament passage found in Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 the best definition for this word seems to be that of desire. The idea is that the “soul” referred to in this passage means the inner part of man that focus’s on feeling, thinking, among other ideas referring to consciousness. The specific part of consciousness seems to be the idea of what we desire. A question we hear from time to time would be “What does your soul yearn for?” What is your hearts desire?
God wants 100% of our desires as well. This would mean that anything and everything that we desire should be within God’s will. Our desires should reflect his desires correct? This would be especially true if our purpose was to become more like Him. What does God desire so that we may make our wills look like His? He desires obedience more than sacrifice. He wants everyone in the world to know who He is. His desire is for us to give him all of ourselves. He desires to rid our lives of sin. He wants us to have abundant life and joy. His desires run deeper and far beyond human comprehension but these few should give us a good start. He told us to take care of the poor and sickly, the homeless, and those who can’t care for themselves. John 3:30 John the Baptist explains a very simple concept about the coming of Christ; “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John had to take a back stage seat to Jesus Christ. Jesus needed to overshadow him. I wonder if the same is true for our will’s; our desires.
Think of it this way. Inside of you is a candle that Jesus has lit. However the more your will dominates your life the less able people are to see the light inside of you. If you would only allow Jesus Christ to take over your will and use your life as an instrument to reach the nations, your light would shine more brightly than a star. Your passion would burn brightly as though the sun were inside you. It can only happen if you submit your heart’s desires to God. He must have control over your life including everything from what you buy to what you watch. Does watching this help me become a better Christian or hurt me? Does watching that gory movie do me good or bad? Passionate faith comes from a God-filled life not a me-filled life.
Mind –
God doesn’t stop with just our emotions and our wills but continues with our minds. This part seems a bit easier to define than the last one. The Greek here simply means our intellect, knowledge, or understanding. Ok the first two seemed pretty simple in what God wanted when he said “love with your entire mind, with all your soul” but what does he mean by “love with all of your intellect”? Philippians 4:8 may give us some idea: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, what ever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” This scripture seems pretty straight-forward. Maybe Romans 12:2 can clarify: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
So, according to scripture our minds are to be renewed to the likeness of Godliness and then focused solely upon that which is good and holy. Although different words are used in each place of the scriptures the same thread connects them all; the thinking part of the human being. All good things come from God, correct? We would not give our child a snake instead of a fish so how much more will God give us the good things of this earth. I wonder why we ought to dwell on the positive things of God. If we love someone dearly do we not think of them and dream about them and for that matter fawn over them from time to time. How else should we use our intellects except dwelling on the goodness of God? This shows that we love him more than the world around us. We show him that we love him through our intellects by filling our minds with Jesus Christ and all His glories and not filling our mind with the trash the world puts out. It seems that almost every new movie they put out has to have some sort of sex scene in it that we don’t need to see. Passionate faith comes from a God-filled life which includes what we read and watch.
Strength –
Our emotions, desires, and thoughts must be his but that leaves just one section of life left; our strength. Although it may seem like the idea behind this would be our physical strength, the actual idea of the word used is that of our abilities as human beings. This of course includes our physical strength. This point says we are to “love God with all of our ability.” This may be the simplest one of all. We might say today that we should love God with everything thing we; all of our energy should go into it. The best way I can sum up this idea is found in Matthew 25:31-46. "Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ "Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ "The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
When we take care of all those the Lord God has left for us to take care of, we will have fulfilled the idea of loving God with all of our strength. This may seem like an impossible task but we were called as workmen for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We show God how much we love Him by how willing we are to work the fields for Him. We can’t earn God’s love because has already given us 100% of it but we can show it back by being obedient servants. “The fields are ripe for the harvest, whom will I send?”
Passionate faith comes from a God-filled life. There is no minimum amount we can put in and have passionate faith. There is no minimum at all. Its either all or nothing. We have to love God with 100% of our emotions, our wills, our thoughts, and our abilities. All four pieces of our lives must be given to Him to obey this commandment. However, the rewards for drawing closer to Him completely outweigh any sacrifices in what we watch and do. If we want to have a faith that inspires others, a faith that burns so brightly within us that others see it no matter how hard we try to hold it in, then we must fill our lives with GOD! There is no other way to passionate faith.
