Passion.

Passion.
Where does it come from?
Why is it needed?
How do we direct it?

That final question is one of major importance. When I am talking about passion I am talking about an intense emotion and compelling desire for a relationship with our Creator. Have you ever been sitting somewhere and listening to something and all of a sudden feel an intense emotion arise from something that was said? Maybe it was a professor that provoked you to consider doing something that you are unsure about. Maybe a moral decision has come up or you have begun to see something unjust. Many times passion is used by God to get our attention. He wants us to do something or to change our thought pattern in an area, and He begins by getting our heads out of the normal ways we think and challenges us to think differently.

Often times the term, the passion of the Christ is thrown out in regards to the final days that Christ lived on earth. Did you know that Jesus' main ministry was only 3 years long! He obviously was living righteously until this point, but it was really only 3 years that Christ served in public ministry by doing miracles, healing, and preaching around Mesopotamia. The source of Christ's passion stemmed from His love for US! He lived, He suffered, He died, He rose again; all out of love for His Father who wanted to give us a second chance at a relationship with Him!

This morning this passage stuck out to me, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." --1 John 4:9

If we have received and accepted Christ as the one who came to take our sins- (how we miss the mark with the Father) then our PASSION is to live through Jesus Christ. I think that is why God gives us passions and compelling desires throughout our lives.

My challenge for today is that you think about what passions God has given you and how you can use those passions for Christ and His kingdom.