Passion
I heard a question the other day that made me really think. The question was, “Why do you do what you do?” I mean my father was a Fireman, so there was no family history of being a pastor. As I dwelled on that question more several thoughts ran through my head about why I am a pastor. I thought about God’s call on my life at 15 years old. I thought about my training in college and seminary to prepare me for the ministry. But none of those were the right answer to the question. Then a word came to me that has driven me more than anything else, the word was “passion.”
The word passion means, “A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.” I started thinking more and more about that word and how it related to my relationship with God and why I am a pastor. I realized that the reason that I want to do what I do is because I have a great passion.
The great passion that I have is for God and God is passionate about people! He loves people for many reasons including because He created people. God passionately seeks out people to bring into fellowship with Him. I set in my heart several years ago that I wanted to be passionate about and for God and I realized that if I was going to be passionate about and for God then I had to be passionate about the things that God is passionate about. As I studied God’s word I realized that one of God’s greatest passion is people. So, as I have pastored over the years I have done things to develop a great passion for people
The problem is that sometimes I lose my passion for God and the things of God. There are different reasons for the loss of passion, but the thing I have to keep coming back to is being passionate. Trust me there are times that I know I could do things that are easier than being a pastor, but the passion God has put inside of me is greater than anything else I could do.
My question for you is why do you do the things for God that you do? Do you do it because of your great passion for God and to see His kingdom come on earth? Or do you do them because of selfishness or a desire for the recognition from people? I challenge you to step up and do the things for God out of a passion for Him and nothing else. Let God be your reason for everything and let everything else take care of itself.
5 comments:
Passion is something I am passionate about as well. And, when in Matthew 22 Jesus talks about the greatest commandments, to love God and love others, I see that, in short form, as having a passion for God and a passion/compassion for people.
As far as our motives for what we do, I think John Piper's Desiring God does a good job of describing what happens to us often. We often settle for something less than what is truly fulfilling and try to fulfill our desire for pleasure with something besides God. It never works and, as Christians, it defames our Lord.
It is a daily struggle.
Oh, and i like your 4 year old's name. :)
Well, glad you like the name! We wanted to be a little unique with both our kids.
You also reminded me of something...Riley turned 5 last week and my son turned a year.
I have never entered into Chris' Blog, but I have to tell you he was passionate about Christ even as a very young man. Enough so to stand up to a major jock in the locker room one day. The guy took Christ's name in vain and Chris backed him up to a locker and said "Hey man, that is my saviour you are talking about and I would appreciate it if you not use His name in that way. He was fortunate that he didn't get clocked, but even if he had known he was going to get clocked I think he wouldn't have hesitated one minute.
You gotta love it when your own mother comments on your blog!
Sometimes I think I do what I do for God because I am good at them and I get a charge out of it (somewhat selfish, I admit). But there have been times when I was doing ministry, wondering if anybody cared and I was tempted to give less than my best. I reminded myself that I do things to bring glory to God and not to necessarily do for others (that is a by product of serving God).
Post a Comment