Daily Reading for Monday, Jan. 21: Passion

Core Value: Passion

We want passion for God to drive us to live life His way, everywhere, everyday!

We believe in living a life of wholehearted devotion to God in everything we do. Our worship is full of delight because of God’s saving intervention. Our passion for worship comes from the recognition of deliverance from a meaningless and mundane life. God is never boring, and church shouldn’t be either. We want church to be full of the life, love, and passion of His presence! Our worship experiences reflect our passion for God, and His passion for us!

~Lighthouse Fellowship Core Value #2

Introduction

Last week, we discussed the importance of prayer in the lifestyle of the believer and of a church. It is prayer that fuels our passion for God, keeping the fire of our love for Him aflame in our hearts. Our passion for God must be without limits—for out of that passion will flow the motivation for us to reach the lost, minister to the needy, and encourage each other in Christ.

Daily Reading for January 21
“And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment.” Mark 12:30 The Amplified Bible

This passage reveals to us the depth of passion we are capable of possessing for God—because He commanded us to love Him in this way. We must love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind because we can love Him that way. Jesus Christ has removed any barrier between God and man and between man and God. What a beautiful thought! So many times, we view commandments as mere rules of behavior that were instituted to restrict us and restrain us from those things that promise pleasure and great delights. But in this command, it is more as if God is saying to us, “Love me without restraint! I give you permission! In fact, I want to enjoy the fullest expression of passion that you are capable of, for I created you to do so.” And in expressing our love for God, we experience great pleasure and delight!

As we examine passion this week, we’ll discuss not only the emotional expression of passion but its motivational power. God created us as people of passion, and He placed desires and passions within us to motivate us to action. For a Christian, all action that comes from “following” our passion must be because loving the Lord our God, with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds is our highest and deepest passion of all.