Becoming Passionate About God So We Can Bring Him Glory

Living in central Ohio I live with the most passionate group of fans around and the those fans would be Ohio State Football fans.  There are no other fans more passionate then that of a buckeye fan, they live and breathe the Scarlet and Gray.  No joking while in Atlanta my wife wear her Ohio State Shirt and everywhere we went we heard one of two phrase’s “O-H” (which we promptly replied “I-O” or “Go Bucks.”  As people we become passionate about teams, things, T.V. show, politics, this is all good.  But the problem is that the one true passion that we need to have in our lives we do not.  We like to believe that life is all about us.  Yet that is not what the Bible teaches us at all we must begin to realign  our thinking toward God, the one passion we need and need to make our deepest is a passion for God.  Paul wrote to young Timothy and told him this; “ this is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So you must never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for Christ” (2^nd Timothy 1:6-8)

What is Paul telling Timothy, he is saying, be passionate about your love for God, don’t worry about how you want things to be.  Don’t fear the world, do not let what others think of you dictate how you act.  Let us think about this for a minute it’s pretty easy to figure out what a person is passionate about and what they love.  I’m huge Detroit Tigers fan, I have the hats and shirts, and even a jacket to prove it.  I have been a fan of Tigers since I was young boy.  I have been with them through the tough years, and now the good years.  I have never been ashamed to talk about them or show that I was fan.  Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here I am not saying, go out to your local Christian book store and buy all the t-shirts and hoodies that have Christian saying on them, don’t go and start putting all kinds scripture on Facebook.  Not that any of that is bad, but let’s takes a look at what Paul is really telling Timothy.

Paul is talking about a life style, a way of living, putting God first and not our own fears and wants of wanting to be liked by others.  We are to stand on the ground of the word of God, we are to live for God not to ashamed of Him.  We must stand out and be different then the world around us.  We are to let those around us know that we love them because God first loved us.   That ,yes, we do not do everything they do because we do not want to bring shame to God, but we want to bring Glory to God.  We must live in such a way that everything we do is bringing glory to God, that are passion for God shines through and the world around us sees that passion.  We must remember that, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”  We must stop walking around thinking that our life on this world is about us, and realize that it all about God.

Francis Chan in book Crazy Love says this about how we are to live, “To be brutally honest, it doesn’t really matter what place you find yourself in right now. Your part is to bring Him glory—whether eating a sandwich on a lunch break, drinking coffee at 12:04 a.m. so you can stay awake to study, or watching your four-month-old take a nap. The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His. It is His movie, His world, His gift.”  “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.”(1^st Corinthians 10:31)

Chan, Francis (2010-01-01). Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (pp. 42-43). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.