It Starts Small

²³ Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23

So far, we have learned that we need to build our lives on a deep and solid rock foundation and when we do this, we begin to build our lives around God transforming everything we know. He changes our perception and through His truth we begin to allow Him to change our value system. Yesterday we evaluated, do I base my values on Jesus’ values or something else?

If you have decided that you want to surrender your all and live by a perfect value system, the next step is love. What we love we will follow. What we value, we will obey. A person will live for and die for what they really love. As Christians, God is to be our ultimate love. He is to be our ultimate passion. This can be hard, but thankfully we are not alone.

God is just as concerned about your spiritual life as you are. God is actually more enthusiastic about our vitality that we are and He specializes in making the impossible, our perfection, possible.

The first commandment Jesus spoke, illuminates a passion for God:

²⁸ One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. ³¹ The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31

This is Jesus’ own expectation of spiritual passion. He point blank tells us what should be the most important relationship to us: God our Father.

Love is one of those words that we understand intuitively, but it has many meanings. Love for God, however, is a very specific love to be given only to Him and no one else. Ask yourself:

Is God my first love? The passion of my heart?

Is God my real love? The passion of my soul?

Is God my true love? The passion of my mind?

Is God my full love? The passion of my life?

If your answers are discouraging, do not be discouraged! God enables us to love Him!

¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

Jesus prays that God would sanctify His disciples in truth. Paul spoke of this truth:

²³ Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

I did not understand how to love God more than anything else in this world. I did not know what it meant when Jesus said love God with my heart, my mind, and my spirit. It is through learning about God, digging into His Word, that we discover who God is. As we discover who God is, we begin to trust Him and He starts to transform our hearts. As He transform our hearts, our perceptions change and so our values change. It takes building a relationship with Him to learn how to love Him with all we are.

If we want a godly passion, our passion has to be loving God FIRST, then He will guide that passion to His will and purpose!

¹ The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.” ²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”²³ Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me. John 14:21-24

Further Reading: Philippians 1:3-10

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Part 1: Passions: What are you willing to die for?
Part 2: Building Foundations
Part 3: Building your Life
Part 4: Love – the Soul’s Passion
Part 5: Work to Do!