A World Changer's Devotion

Challenge 1 : Passion For God!

Because I miss you,  I dedicate this for you. :D

Challenge 1: World Changers Keep Their Relationship with Jesus Alive By keeping Their Quiet Times.

The Most Important Thing

Mark 12: 28-30

     One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer he asked him, "Of all the commandments, Which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this, 'Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is one" Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

     Jesus says here that the most important thing is to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts. To be successful in keeping your relationship with Jesus ALIVE and making your quiet times full of life, you have to have a heart that beats for God.Your heart has to be swelled with passion and longing to love Him more than anything else you ever thought of. In this passage, Jesus makes it very clear that God wants our hearts. He wants us to wrap our lives around Him. He wants to stir us up and grab our hearts! He wants to pre-occupy us. He wants us to love Him not just with our heads, not just with words. Many people answer the question "Do you love God?" with, "Well, sure. I don't hate Him. I love nice sunny day. I love bread and peanuts. I love pizza. And I love God." But Jesus is talking about something much deeper. He says, " I want the very center of your being. I want you to love God with every ounce of passion you can gather."

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With All Of Your Heart

Mark 12:29-30

     "The most important (commandment)," answered Jesus, "is this, 'Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, ther Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

     The phrase "all your hearts" is used twenty-three times in the Bible.God is trying to make a point here: He doesn't want you to just follow a bunch of things rules and regulations; He wants your heart. He doesn't want you to be like a robot, doing a bunch of things that are written down in a rule  book just because you were programmed that way. No! God wants a heart-to-heart hook up with you. He wants to be knit together at the heart with you.

     We human beings always try to reduce our relationship with God to a bunch of rules. I think that is why a lot of people don't become Christians--they think , God will ruin my fun. I will have to follow all of these rules.

     God has never been into a bunch of rules. He has always been into people's hearts. In fact, the first four commandments have to do with a relationship with Him - honoring Him, Having no other gods before Him, setting a whole day aside to worship Him and love Him.

Exodus 20:3-10

     You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the fourth and third generations of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

     It seems that it is easier for us to reduce our relationship with God to a bunch of rules. We think if we just abide by the rules, then we won't have to get into heart issues. The heart issues, although sometimes difficult to deal with, bring us freedom when Jesus really comes in and melt our hearts.

     If you are going to keep your relationship with Jesus alive, you have to stay connected to Him heart to heart. You have to let Him fill your heart. You have to long for Him with all your heart all day long today. You have to dive into the Scripture and say, "God, fill my heart with your Word today." You have to have a passionate desire to grab hold of Him right now more than you ever have in your life.  You have to let your heart scream as loud as you can, "Lord God, I want you with ALL OF MY HEART, and I love you with ALL OF MY HEART! Now speak to me Lord"

     Jesus didn't want this to be silly, casual desire: "Oh Lord, I sort of want You." He says you have to love Him with all of your heart. Many times Jesus said things like "he who has ears to hear, let him hear" as He was getting ready to share a parable. He was saying, "Listen, if you want this thing, you've got to really listen. Not everyone who has ears is going to really hear this thing. You've got to really want it." It is the same way with love for God. If you are just going through the motions and saying the words with your lips, then it doesn't mean anything. He wants more than just the kind of love that you have for pizza, the kind of love that you have for bread and peanut. He wants you to love Him with all your heart.

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Don't Let The World Kidnap Your Passion

Psalm 119:148

    My eyes stays open through the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promises.

     It seems that the world is bent on stealing our passion. We'll talk about having a passion for God where He captures our attention, our imagination, and our hearts. The devil is constantly putting things before us to lure us away from God. He wants to capture our attention. He wants to capture our passion with fake substitutes that lead nowhere. 

     Some people have a passion for sports. They think about it, they watch it, they play it, and they look at satistics and magazines. Sports, sports, sports-it's always on their minds.. Other people have a passion for movies, video games, or music videos. And still other people have a passion for a guy or girl. That is probably the most common and wrong passion.

     The Webster's Collegiate Dictionary definiton of passion is "an intense emotion compelling action; any object of desire or deep interest" Jesus wants to be the strong desire in our lives. The world offers us many things as object of that strong desire. The tragedy is that too many people who sit in church every week call themselves Christians, but they can't wait to leave church so they can do something that they really enjoy.

     Jesus wants to be the object of our PASSION. He wants to be what we dream about when we go to sleep at night. When our passion is for Jesus, we can't wait to get up so that we can serve Him and get closer to Him. We stay awake thinking about Him all night, just as David talked about in the verse.