The Religious Nerd

Do you consider yourself to be passionate for God?

Before you answer that, think of something in your life right now that you absolutely love doing and cannot live without.  Some of you love cars, and are passionate about fixing them up, and making them faster. Some of you love coffee, and cannot go a day without having some.  You can name every coffee sold by Starbucks and can explain in detail the subtle differences between varying roasts and blends.  Your local coffee shop baristas greet you by name when you come in every morning.  You LOVE coffee!

Some of you love music. You cannot go an entire day without putting earphones in your ears and playing your favorite songs on your iPhone, Android, or iPod.  A lot of young people are very passionate about politics.  I have a friend who left his cushy government job to be an attorney for the Democratic Convention on the east coast.  He is so passionate for politics that he is packing up everything he owns and is driving across the country to North Carolina to set up shop for the next 6 months. A lot of you men are passionate in your work, and try your hardest to do well and get promotions.  A lot of you women are passionate about parenting and raising your children up properly.

Passion manifests itself in a variety of ways and generally is related to what a person is good at, gifted in, or gives them great joy from doing.  For example, I stink at doing construction work, playing instruments, playing golf, and learning foreign languages.  All of these things do not come natural to me and I usually don’t take too much joy in doing these things either. However, when I see someone who is gifted and passionate about these things it makes me happy and I take great joy out of watching them succeed at them.

Now I take you back to my original question, Do you consider yourself to be passionate for God? What if I told you that God intends for you to be passionate for Him? Would you believe me if I told you that the Holy Spirit enables all Christians with the ability to be passionate for God?   

Look at the following scripture verses and ask yourself whether or not you think you are passionate for God:

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
(Psalm 42:1-2 ESV)

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
(Psalm 63:1 ESV)

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. (Philippians 2:17-18 ESV)

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
(Philippians 3:7-8 ESV)

Most Christians will only know a few people in their lifetime who have a passion for God that looks anything like what is shown in these bible verses. Most Christians have many religious people in their lives though who try hard to look like these biblical examples.

These religious people are very concerned with appearing Godly on the outside, but when they are all alone by themselves all of a sudden their Godliness is no longer present.  Simply stated, religious people who are only concerned about outward appearances are not truly passionate for God.  Before you get upset with me for saying that, let me explain why.

In Psalm 63, David is on the run in the desert in fear of being murdered by his own son.  Despite the great heat of the Middle Eastern desert, the eminent threat of death, and the tremendous thirst, he cannot stop thinking about God.  In his physical thirst, he developed a spiritual thirst that was far more powerful than all of the physical elements that were bearing down on him.

Now think about what the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians.  “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”  What he means by drink offering is that even while he is in prison, waiting for his life to be taken, he rejoices in knowing that he is doing it for Christ and the Church.

Again in Philippians Paul writes “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”… As you can see from these biblical examples, true passion for God does not depart when life gets difficult, instead the passion grows life a fire that has been doused with gasoline does.

This brings me to my last questions:Do you know anyone like that? Are you like that?

Do you have passion for God like David and Paul had? Do you have passion for God like you have passion for school, work, exercise, cars, electronics, music, television, relationships, and children? Does your soul thirst for the Living God?  When things aren’t going your way do you draw near to Him? 

God wants you to passionately pursue him.  He wants to have a personal,and passionate relationship with Him.  He doesn’t want you to be religious.  He doesn’t want you to focus on outward appearance exclusively, the desire of His heart is to be glorified through you deep within your heart, mind, body, and soul.

If you aren’t there in your walk with God yet, I want to help you get there using ideas straight out of the bible.  So please come back in a few days for part 2 of my series on passion for God. Until then, think about where you are in your walk with God, and where you would like to be, and approach God in prayer asking Him to kindle a passion in your heart.