| Renewing Our Passion |
| �Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Romans 12:11 |
| "I want to! God, I really want to, but how am I to stir up passion? I cannot be joyful because an outline tells me to any more than I might stir my adrenaline without a felt need. I can sprint for a mon=ment, but the energy fades and I begin to lose reason to run at all. I am weary of pep talks. Pop psychology has left me feeling as sickly as a boy on a diet of gummy bears and grape soda." I know that you understand. I have been there as well... unemotional, unwilling, and uninspired. At the same time, I cannot help but think that God would not ask the impossible of us. Somehow the Spirit is to be involved in renewing us. In his second letter to Corinth Paul indicates that the Spirit renews us "day by day!" (2Cor 4:16) In the 1981 classic, CHARIOTS OF FIRE, Eric Liddel askes, "So where does the power come from to see the race to it's end?" He concludes that such power comes "from within." He follows, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. I'm going to run for His pleasure." Fatigue and apathy can spread like a disease, but vision and passion can be equally contagious. Remember that the same Spirit that breathed life into Adam and raised our Lord from the grave also indwells you for that very same purpose. (Romans 8:11) |
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