Emma Stone’s character in the film La La Land (the latest Hollywood musical released in 2016) once said “People love what other people are passionate about.” This is a reality that most of us will agree. We really admire those people who are passionate with their assigned tasks and thus giving their very best in everything they do. These individuals are those we want to imitate and we are eager to know their secrets or motivation for being so enthusiastic. And most of the time, these people are those who became successful in life because they chose careers they love that made them feel as if they are not working at all.
The term passionate is an adjective which means “ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling.” Therefore, a passionate individual is someone who has a strong feeling about something and his life is being ruled by that emotion. We can also use the term enthusiastic in describing such person as a passionate individual is also called an enthusiast. If someone is passionate about sports, he is called a sports enthusiast. If someone likes cars and he is passionate about them, he is called a car enthusiast. We usually used this term to describe such individuals.
But the question that we need to answer as Christian is “What are we passionate about?
This world offers a lot of things that will really draw our interest like entertainment, recreational activities, best-selling books, etc. And from these things, we can choose what we want to be passionate about. We can be passionate about movies, extreme sports, dystopian novels or anything that we think is fitted with our personalities. And in fact there is nothing wrong to be enthusiastic with such things and to invest some of our time for them as God created pleasure for us to enjoy and this can be proved by a lot of verses from the Bible like what King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:
It is true that these activities existed for us to enjoy, but as Christians we should be careful in choosing our hobbies as these may draw us nearer to God or hinder us to follow the will of God. We need to be careful not to turn our hobbies into worldly pleasures.
But how can a simple hobby be turned into a worldly pleasure? The questions below may help you:
- Does this activity/hobby affects your personal time with the LORD?
- Are you more excited doing these things than be excited to read the Scripture?
- Are you investing so much money for this activity than using your financial blessings for greater purposes?
- Are you investing so much energy and time for this hobby and less time with Christian-related activities (missions, fellowships, church services).
If your answer for those questions are YESES, then you are hooked with worldly pleasures! And you need to ask God’s guidance to help you overcome them. It is because the Bible is very clear the we should not conform any longer to the patterns of this world (Romans 12:2a) as we are not of this world (John 17:16). And instead of seeking the pleasures of the world, all we need to do is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). That is why we should let the Scripture train us in the path of righteousness (1 Timothy 3:16-17) so that we may know the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2b).
So now what? What should we be passionate about? What kind of enthusiast should Christians be? What are the things or activities that should make us enthusiastic?
The Bible can give us a lot of things that Christians should be passionate, but I’ll just give you three things that I believe will help us realize our identities as Christians.
Christians should be Bible-Enthusiast
John declared that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1) The Word that is being talked about in this verse is no other than but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word that is being introduced in the Bible from the Old Testament up to the New Testament. However, it is a sad truth that a lot of us, Christians, are not enthusiastic with the Bible. There are times that we have a lot of time browsing our Facebook or gaming but we don’t find time in reading the Scripture, which Apostle Paul declared in 2 Timothy as God-breathed. If most of us doesn’t know this: God’s word is given so much emphasis in the book of Psalms when David wrote Psalms 119 (the longest chapter in the Bible) and he talked about the God’s law throughout its 176 verses. He described God’s word as sweeter than honey, lamp to his feet and light for his path and even more precious than gold. Indeed, God’s word is something that we should treasure, however, modern Christians don’t have the same passion as David and we don’t see God’s word just like him.
To correct this, we should start analyzing our walk with the Lord and see if we are really in faith. Do we really love God or passionate about the things of God? Do we really desire to obey Him? If yes, then why aren’t we reading the manual He has given us for us to live a godly life that He desires for every one of us. If we are so enthusiastic about the ministry but we are not spending time with the Lord through meditating His word, how can we say that we have relationship with Him? We should think about this and if we are humble enough, we should start kneeling down and repenting to God and admit that we have disobeyed the instruction He has given first to Joshua and then to each one of us and that is:
We should start being Bible-Enthusiast!
Christians should be Prayer-Enthusiast
The second thing that Christians should be passionate about is prayer. It is ironic that there are Christians who is not fond of praying. Prayer is a vital part of our Christian life because if Bible reading is God’s way to speak to us, prayer is our way to speak to God. Relationship needs two-way communication. It is not just God talking to us through the Scripture but also us talking to Him through prayer. Just like a son or daughter having relationship with his/her father through constant communication. Let us all take note the word “constant”, it means we will not just pray when we are in trouble, because when we do that as someone says: we are in trouble.
Prayer should be something that we, Christians, should be so passionate that we can’t start any activity without doing it. Because praying to God wherever and whenever means total reliance to our Lord. Just like Jesus who prayed three times before His crucifixion. We should be totally dependent to our Lord with the focus like Jesus that “let His will be done, not ours.” Are you passionate to pray? If not, can you say that you have relationship with Him? Think about this, because Christians should be and should always be Prayer-Enthusiast.
Christians should be Great Commission-Enthusiast
The last thing that we should be passionate about is fulfilling the Great Commission.
The Great Commission is really a “great” responsibility that was given by Jesus not just to pastors, bible study leaders, evangelist, missionaries and the likes but to every Christian, including you, that should be fulfilled. Why great? Because it is a mission given by God Himself. Why is this important? Because we will be introducing to the people the gospel that Paul declared as “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Why they need to know this? Because if they won’t, they will never get the chance to escape the wrath of God and will be forever separated to the presence of our Holy God. Yes this is true and those people include our friends, relatives, classmates, co-workers and anyone we know who haven’t received Jesus in their lives yet because of two reasons: first, they have heard it but do not believe it; second, no one has ever introduced the gospel to them.
That someone from the second reason is anyone of us, who has no passion to fulfill the Great Commission. One of you may say that we want to but the time is not right. Or we want to share the gospel, but I have no idea how to. This is where the greatest hindrance to fulfilling the commission comes – and it is called “Excuses”. This is truly the main reason why a lot of Christians aren’t enthusiastic in introducing Jesus and this hindrance should be overcome by everyone of us. How? By reminding ourselves that we are also once lost but have been found by the Lord. And those people who are still outside the kingdom of God needs the saving grace that comes only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you ready to do this? Are you now willing to truly deny yourself just to fulfill the Great Commission? If your answer is No, let me tell you this with love that maybe, just maybe, you are not yet a Christian. Because Christian will always have the passion to share the gospel to the lost people in this world. If your answer is Yes, then let me tell you what you should expect in following Jesus. Don’t expect to be popular, don’t expect to be likened, don’t expect that everyone will receive Chris. Just share the gospel and let others know that God loves them that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross just to saved us from our sins and from the wrath of God that awaits us in hell.
Let us always remember brothers and sisters that the “gospel is good news only if it arrives in time”
