A Passionate Heart

Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.

Mark 12:30

AMERICANS ARE A PASSIONATE PEOPLE—passionate about sports, politics, fashion, restaurants, and musical groups. We scream our heads off at football games and concerts. We hurt when our team or candidate loses. We are elated when victory comes. But sometimes we aren’t very emotional about our faith. Why is that? If we are passionate about things we love—teams, bands, restaurants—why aren’t we also passionate about the God we profess to love—the God who loves us “with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3)?

Because it’s easier to be a fan than a follower. Being a follower takes commitment. It takes listening to and obeying God. It means spending time with Him, learning about Him. It means allowing Him to change us into His likeness. The more we follow Him, the more passionate our hearts become for Him.

In the Bible, the word heart refers to the hidden springs of one’s personal life, that from which everything flows. When we are passionate about Jesus, that passion will flow from our hearts into every area of our lives, including our emotions.

As men, we may find it hard to talk about or even express certain emotions, but God created emotions as part of our humanity. He commanded us to love Him with all of our hearts, from the very center of our lives.

BOTTOM LINE

As author Mark Batterson observes, “Your reactions reveal what is really in your heart. and if you love God with all your heart, you won’t just act like it. You’ll react like it.”

Moment of Strength: Deuteronomy 4:29