Every morning I wake up, say a prayer of thanksgiving, a prayer protection throughout the day and lastly a prayer of intentionality in the kingdom. I also talk to myself and lately my emphasis have been on being who God wants me to be Passionately. Anything that I do has to be done with Passion! No questions asked. Anything that I say has to come from a place of enthusiasm, excitement etc.
My Christian life and relationship with Christ have always given me hope. I grew up in the church, went to church every Sunday and most days of the week. My family’s foundation was built on faith. Because of this I always assumed that I had a relationship with God. Because my mother was someone who studied the word and prayed a lot, this automatically made me right with God? No that’s absolutely wrong.
You see, I’d spent so many years being casual with God with no intention of going deep into my faith. Basically, I was living without Passion. Everything was based off of my Mom’s passion for God and not my own. When we are baptized we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I was one who had been baptized into Christ, but what I did with the Holy Spirit gift was put it away and I never relied on it for guidance. I had to figure out my why, my reason for serving God. As I asked myself this question, I realized that my reason for being a believer was because I had so much to be thankful for and it was only God who could have given me the comfort I needed in my most trying times. For example, when my mom finished her journey here on earth, I had no other choice but to own my faith. No more hiding behind her faith, I had to step it up. I also realized, only God could bring so much joy through experiences he had allowed me to be apart of. Reflecting back on my life at this particular point fired me up! It made me excited to be considered his child and excited to have the Holy Spirit guiding me. In that moment and thereafter, I had been given a clear view of why I needed to have Passion toward God and others! Nothing less! So, like I stated at the beginning, anything I do in my life has to have passion because God is my everything and anything I do for God counts. The definition of Passion in the dictionary says: “strong and barely controllable emotion.”
You see the word of God calls us to that when it says in the 100th Psalm :
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”
I love the part that says “Bless his name,” because when we worship him, we are blessing his name. When we worship in a corporate setting, we are called to shout his name out loud together in spiritual songs and hymns. So, I encourage us as his people to come to God not so causal, but instead come before the king with Passion!!
As we start “Passion” back up here at SOCC on September 5, 2018, I want to invite everyone to experience unrestricted worship together at 6:30pm sharp in the auditorium. Let’s worship out of our comfort zone with Passion, Enthusiasm and JOY! See you there!
