Christians, recently God has been showing me quite a lot on the topic of passion. By now you are aware of conviction, education, application, and passion. I feel the Lord leading me to clarify one more point. It seems very simple, but I believe it is to make sure we are not “motivated” but “passionate.” Motivation has incentives.
I am not condemning being motivated at all, I am just saying that if we truly want to serve God on the highest level, we need passion. I believe everything starts out as a motivation. When we get saved, it could be out of motivation of not wanting to go to hell. Once you are saved, if that was your only motivation, you will not have much zeal for serving God. You received what you wanted, and your motivation diminishes toward serving God. We must develop a passion for serving God.
One definition I love for passion is: An irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action. I think that sums up the true Christian life in a sentence. If we are only motivated by “things“, they are temporal. Whether it is money, positions, recognition, a level of success or something else. When you achieve those things or the incentive is gone, so is your conviction about that issue.
Take weight loss, for example, say you are in a group and there is an incentive of cash prize for losing the most weight. I think intrinsically the motivation is the money, and that is fine. However, if you go through the whole weight loss contest and there is not a process of bringing a healthy lifestyle into a passion: to be healthy, live for God and be an example to others. Then when the money incentive is gone, so is your motivation to stay healthy. I have seen this happen to people on TV weight loss shows. It did not happen overnight, but all of the progress was lost and they were in the same unhealthy position as before if not worse all because they were not passionate about healthy living.
If you are motivated, you will only do it as long as the incentive is there, if you are passionate you will do it without any incentive, irrationally, irresistible, passionate even to death, if your source is correct. It is ok to start out motivated, but we need to get and stay passionate. Remember: when no one is looking, your passions shine the brightest. In Jesus Name, Amen.
While typing this up, God gave me Peter as an example of Motivation vs. Passion: Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared,”Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.
You see they were motivated by Jesus, but when He was arrested, their motivation was gone, and also their convictions. All the disciples deserted Jesus, and Peter denied Him.
“Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to Him, “Follow me!” John 21 18-19 (NIV)
Peter and the other disciples got passionate for God, to do His will, unto death, which was true for most of them. I pray that as we finish this series on passion, that a passion to serve God wholeheartedly would fall on us, that we would not be motivated, but passionate in all areas. As things come and go out of our lives, the one thing that remains is our steadfast passion to follow God unto death, In Jesus Name, Amen.
written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2017
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