Fervent Passion

The Lord highlighted the word “fervent” to me as I was reading Luke 22:15 recently where Jesus says to His disciples, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

Fervent means: displaying a passionate intensity. Jesus intensely desired to commune with them. 

With fervent desire He longs to spend time with us in the secret place of His presence. 

James 5:16 declares that “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” 

According to Zephaniah 3:17, the Lord rejoices over us, that word rejoice gives the picture of circling around with violent emotion. It’s hard for me to picture what that looks like, but it sounds like passion and zeal. He is filled with passion and zeal for us!

We are devoted to what we are passionate about. I think of the quote from the movie, National Treasure “one step short of crazy, what do you get? Passionate.” 

When you’re passionate about something, you can’t help but speak about it. Your passion is what’s on your mind when you wake up. It’s what drives you, what your life is centered around. 

Passion for Christ looks strange to this world while passion for sports, work, or hobbies is totally acceptable and even applauded. Passion makes religion uncomfortable and passion for Jesus points people to Jesus. 

On the day we see Jesus face to face I do not believe any of us will say “I should have been less fervent in prayer, less vocal about God’s goodness, less passionate about Christ.” No, we will wonder why He wasn’t our one desire, our one passion. We will wonder why lesser things sat upon the thrones of our hearts instead of the King of kings. Why we didn’t see that He is worthy of any and all cost. He is worthy of any sacrifice, He is worthy of all our praise and worship. He is worthy of earnest and fervent time in prayer. He is worthy of our passion.

Father, forgive us for our misplaced passions, for allowing other and lesser things to take Your place. Bind our hearts to Your heart and fill us with Your passion. The cross is a picture of your passion for us. Break us away from everything that has distracted us hindering our walk with You. Thank you for Your endless mercy and compassion. May our passion for You drive us to be who You created us to be and to fulfill the callings You have placed on our lives. You will forever be our first Love. 

Amen.