Passion

By Jeff Faull

Did you ever try one of those love tester machines at the mall? You drop your coin in and grasp the handle as all your friends watch. The buzzers sound and the lights flash and the machine tells you your “love quotient.” You might be hot, passionate, burning, wild, mild, harmless, clammy, all the way down to cold or blah.

Have you ever wasted a quarter on that? By the way, those machines came out in the 1930s and are totally random in their rating selection. Maybe that bursts a bubble for some of you, or perhaps it lifts a lifelong feeling of inferiority.

What if there were a machine that could gauge our passion for God? What if we had a God-passion tester? I”m afraid there is no such machine. Football coach Chuck Noll once said, “The nice thing about football is that you have a scoreboard to show how you”ve done. In other things in life, you don”t. At least not one you can see.”

Throughout history, as recorded in Scripture, God has been looking for people who have a passion for him. In the first book of the Bible, he told Abraham, “Now I know you trust me.” When God gave the Ten Commandments he said, “I love those who love me.” In the time of the kings, God asked for wholehearted devotion. In fact he said, “I am looking over all the earth to see whose heart is completely mine.”

In the New Testament, we are reminded that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. We are promised that all things work together for good for those who love God. We are told that the Father is looking for true worshippers.

It is clear God hates lukewarm attitudes. An entire church is accused of having left their first love. Jesus said, “These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8).

The teaching is consistent throughout the New Testament. Paul urged in Romans 12:11, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor.” God is still looking for people who have a passion for him.

Since the beginning of time he has been looking and he will still be looking for that passion when Christ returns. The apostle said, “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8, New American Standard Bible).

There is no doubt God is looking for people who have a passion for him.

 

Jeff Faull serves as minister with Mount Gilead Church, Mooresville, Indiana, and also as a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor.