Hello Grace Chapel from Bangkok, Thailand! We trust you are all well and safe from the Covid virus. Thailand has been blessed to have a relatively small number of infections and deaths, but like most other nations, the people have been greatly impacted by the shutdown. Especially the poor Thais and refugees that we are involved with, because of having no savings, no assistance from the government, and no work for the past 2 months. However, through the generosity of people here in Thailand and overseas, our team has been able to provide around 5,000 meals for hurting Thais in our part of Bangkok. Pat has also been able to provide bags of food staples to nearly 350 refugee families. Thank you very much to everyone who has been praying and helping with this!  

One of many things we love about Bangkok is that we never need to worry about getting cold! Most days the temperature is in the 90s, and we like hot more than cold!

Relating to that, the thought comes, “Sam, how is the temperature in your heart? Is it on fire with love for God, hot with passion for the things that are on His heart? Or has it cooled down to “room temperature”, from focusing on your own desires more than on God’s? Or even from just ‘day to day life?”

There are a number of people in the Bible whose hearts were on fire for God. Jer. 20:9 “His word burns in my heart like a fire.” In Lk 24:32 the disciples who met Jesus on the way to Emmaus later said about that while Jesus had been speaking, “…did not our hearts burn within us ?”

I admit for myself that though sometimes I am what I would call “on fire for God”, there are also times when I’m absolutely NOT! And to be honest, there are times when I don’t even feel like taking time to be with Him. So what can we do to start, or restart a fire in our hearts, or better yet, to live a lifestyle of passion for Jesus?

First of all, we need to understand that passion for Jesus is not automatic! It won’t happen just because we believe in Him. The other thing is that passion for Jesus doesn’t depend in any way on how we happen to feel. Feeling warm and fuzzy doesn’t mean we’re closer to the heart of God, and in the same way, we can have white hot passion for God but not necessarily feel anything . Passion for Jesus comes from choosing to put Him FIRST in our lives, and living a lifestyle of loving Him more than we love ourselves.

King David in the Old Testament is a good example of this. Ps. 27:4 “The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord (in the presence of God) all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.” David was basically saying, “NOTHING is more important to me than being close to God, and I’ll do whatever it takes to live every day for the rest of my life like that!

Let’s look at some other things from David’s life that can help develop and maintain passion for God.

First: Making time with God the MOST important time of day Ps. 5:3 “In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” Many mornings when I wake up, I feel no passion for Jesus at all! I have to actually force myself to take time with Him, to begin praising and thanking Him, regardless of how I feel. But AS I DO, Holy Spirit begins to change me on the inside, and draw me to Himself, and soon worship is flowing and the fire restarts. Find a time of day that works for you. If we are committed to this, God will make a way, even if we’re really busy or have small children.

Second: Being intentional on developing a habit of being thankful to/praising God, and telling Him regularly how much you love Him. The Psalms are full of this! Ps 34:1 “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  David was making a decision there, that THIS is how I’m going to live my life, regardless of how I feel or what circumstances I’m facing. (And he was in terrible circumstances when he wrote that!)

Third: Making sure there is nothing blocking your relationship with God, and getting rid of anything hindering it. Ps. 139:23,24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” I try to pray this every morning, and listen to see if God wants to point something out. If He does, I respond and repent, then I can go on in confidence that there’s nothing between me and Him.

The last thing I want to mention is that we all need to have a friend or a small group that we will be open and honest with about our life and our relationship with God. We need one another, to help encourage and challenge us in our spiritual lives. So find someone you can be accountable to, and begin walking together in this quest for being passionate for Jesus.

So let’s press in to know and love God more, and ask Holy Spirit to light a new fire of passion for Him in our hearts!