The enemy of passion is indifference. That's when we go through the motions, but our focus is broken by other things. It’s not that we've said no to God; it’s that we haven’t said a definite and passionate yes to Him. In the Old Testament, King Amaziah ‘did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.’ Passion doesn't disappear overnight. It happens when we neglect and take things for granted.

We might think lack of passion doesn’t matter too much, but Jeremiah warns about ‘a curse on anyone who is lax (negligent, slack, slipshod) in doing the Lord’s work!’ (Jeremiah 48:10 NIV). The Bible tells us one source for a loss of passion: ‘This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes’ (Acts 28:27 NIV). The word ‘calloused’ refers to hard, dead skin that slowly builds up on the soles of your feet until you can’t walk properly or without pain.

Jesus told the first and last two churches in Revelation: 1) ‘I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first’ (Revelation 2:4-5 NIVUK). 2) ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth’ (Revelation 3:15-16 NIV). So with those verses in mind, let's resolve to be passionate about God's plans!

What Now?

Which Bible verses encourage you to be passionate about God? Save them to help you whenever indifference tries to creep into your life.