When was the last time you saw true passion? Not lust, but true, real authentic passion? When was the last time you heard someone speak, teach or preach with real passion? When have you observed passionate people helping others?
Passion is bred out of compassion.
Have you ever noticed someone who passionately feeds the poor, only to find out that there was a time that they were destitute and hungry or encountered someone who was? It was out of compassion for themselves or others that drew them into helping others, so that they wouldn’t have to endure the pain that they went through or saw.
Pain or Personal Encounter create within us a compassion for others.
Compassion: to have a soft heart for; to feel pity for; a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
Compassion breeds passion.
Jesus showed compassion so often but none more heartfelt as this one:
“ Oh, Jerusalem…how often I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37
It was this strong compassion that led Jesus with such passion to the cross. That’s why the crucifixion is often called “The Passion of the Christ”.
If we see no passion, perhaps it is because we have lost compassion for others.
In Matthew 24, Jesus went on to share with His disciples about the circumstances prior to His second coming. He made this statement: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of many will grow cold.” (verse 12)
I think we would all agree that we are living in an increasingly wicked world. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20) This is what we witness happening to our world; they call good, evil, and evil, good. Trust is non-existent, and judgement is off the chart. Genuine, authentic, and sincere love is extremely hard to find.
The love of many has grown cold. And because of that, we see no compassion, which results in no passion to help others. And this has made its way into our churches.
So what is the answer? I would lay before you that the answer is to cultivate the presence of God wherever you go. God is love. Love is a fruit of His Spirit at work within us as we abide with Him.
As Christians today, our task is to operate from the opposite spirit, not to partner with the opposing spirit! Many Christians are allowing the spirit of hate, judgement, selfishness, and fear overtake their lives because it is what we are seeing in the world. But we are not of this world!!! We are tasked to partner with the Holy Spirit to release His fruit in our lives!!! And the opposite of what we see in this world is LOVE.
If we want to see more passionate followers of Jesus who are doing something about what they see, then we need more compassion. And the only way we will get compassion is to begin to truly love people again. It is our call; it is our focus during this season in our world.
We do not need complacent, rejecting, mundane, or apathetic Christians. We need love to permeate our lives….and consume our churches. May we ask the Holy Spirit to develop within us a deep love for people and an unrelenting compassion for those around us, that propels us to passionately do something about it. May we all take this seriously and respond accordingly for the glory of God.
What are you passionate about? How will you partner with the Holy Spirit to create an atmosphere of love to those around you? What have you experienced or seen that has stirred deep compassion in you? What will you do to passionately help from that place of compassion? Is there a ministry that you could build up by being a part of it? Pray into these things and let the Spirit reveal some next steps….then, take them!
”What the world needs now, is love, sweet love; it’s the only thing, that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now, is love, sweet love; No not just for some, but for everyone.” Burt Bacharach
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