Passion

Passion has been given a distorted place in our world. True passion--that which rests in the spiritual--is a necessary trait for the child of God. Certainly, no one was more passionate for the things of God than our Savior, Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, I believe, that one of the greatest examples is David.
David never did anything halfway. David was passionate about the safety of his sheep, passionate about the defense of God's glory in the face of giants, passionate about letting God raise him to the throne in His timing, passionate about the return of the ark--the presence of God--to Jerusalem. David showed great regard for those who sacrificed on his behalf. David opened up his very soul to God in his deeply emotional psalms--he held nothing back that his heart felt. He trusted God with his most intimate joys and sorrows, his triumphs and his tragedies.
In addition, David strove for the ideal. He never achieved it; he was not given permission to do all for God that his heart desired to do, but he never stopped striving. If he could not build the temple, he would amass all the things necessary so that his son could build it. He was a man with a vision, a man who focused on the well done of God. If someone were to ask David his opinion on a matter, his response would be, "What does God say about it? I agree with Him."
And David's self-determination had no self in it. As a shepherd on the darkest night, he saw only the brilliance of the stars and reflected on the glory of his God portrayed there. As a king in his darkest hour, he was more concerned about the safety of Absalom than for his own deliverance. As a subject to a king who sought his life, he was more concerned with honoring the one ordained of God than with grasping the power promised to him as the next anointed of God. As a loyal friend of that king's son, he was passionate about protecting and providing for the one Jonathan left behind.
Was David perfect? We all know the answer to that one--having been at home with failures ourselves. On occasion, David's strength--his passion--slid off its center on the spiritual and became distorted--focused on the physical and human. (We are always most vulnerable in the areas we think are our strengths, aren't we?) Yet, David was passionate about his sorrow for his sin, eager to humble himself and ask for God's forgiveness knowing that he did not deserve it, but that the God of lovingkindness delighted in bestowing it. He was passionate in pleading with God for mercy for his newborn son and passionately accepted God's decision not to grant it and rose to go about the business God had called him to do passionately.
We need more passionate Christians. Christians who are passionately committed to the Name of Christ, His truth and His love. Christians who are passionate about sharing all their heart with God. Christians who are passionate about letting God do His will in their lives in His way and in His time. Christians who are passionate about seeking God's forgiveness in all humility, resting in His eagerness to forgive, cleanse, restore, and use again. May God grant us that passion--or as God calls it--to have a heart like His heart, to be focused on loving the things He loves, trusting that what He brings into our life is a proof of His love, focused on "doing only those things that please Him."