Passionate Faith

Passionate Faith

May the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

When I was growing up, it wasn’t unusual for me to reach into our family’s cookie jar and find the world’s favorite cookies inside. You know the ones I’m talking about—those round black cookies with the delectable white frosting in between. Neither was it unusual to bite into one of those Oreos and find myself chewing on quite another treat than the one I thought I had just popped into my mouth. Instead of a sweet, luscious mouthful, I found myself chewing on dry crumbs. Someone had sneaked them out of the jar, eaten the creamy inside, and then put the two round cookies together again, hoping no one would notice. Of course, the culprits were my two younger brothers.

I tell the story, not merely to expose their crime, but to make the point that faith can be like those Oreo cookies. Think about it. The cream inside is what really makes those cookies work. Nobody would buy them without it. Likewise, the passion we have for Christ is what makes our faith work. Without that passion, that love relationship, everything else becomes tasteless and dry.

Many people who identify themselves as Christians just go through the motions, attending church and paying lip service to their faith while their hearts are far from God. Perhaps they never had a personal encounter with Christ, or perhaps they drifted away from their first love. This can happen slowly, under the radar. The passion we have for Christ begins to dissipate and then degrade. Finally it simply slips away, making the faith we profess dry and tasteless. Instead of having a vibrant faith, we become merely religious. When that happens, we desperately need the Holy Spirit to restore and renew us.

Pursuing peace apart from Christ will, in the end, prove to be the most fruitless of journeys. Only the peace he offers has the power to transform our lives and take us where we want to go.

Father, you know the state of my heart. Please show me what is there and give me more grace, more faith, and more passion to live for you.