Passion Shift // Galatians 5:24

Happy Easter Monday! I have some good news for you: Jesus’ tomb is STILL empty! Hallelujah, right? Jesus’ resurrection grants the same power to those who put their faith in Him so we may die to self and live for Him. Our verse from Galatians 5:24 helps make this clear for us: we are to willingly crucify the things that separate us from the Lord so we may receive God’s resurrection power to live for Jesus daily.

I want to take a moment and explore the meaning of the word, passion. The context in this passage deals with the overwhelming emotions that draw us to certain things. Some of those can be good, some of those can be bad, but anything that takes a disproportionate priority in our lives becomes problematic. Those problems can cause us to suffer when we experience a breakdown in our relationships with God, others, and even self. This leads to another understanding of the word, passion, which means to suffer in Greek and Latin. This might help to better understand the movie title, “The Passion of the Christ.” Jesus’ sacrifice merged the meaning of those words into one incredible action: He willingly suffered the physical, emotional, and spiritual torture of crucifixion because of His intense love for you!

God wants us all to experience a passion shift. We need to willingly sacrifice the things that can draw us away from Him. He then wants to transform your passions into something that can be used to point other people to God. This is precisely what Jesus did and what He asks of every single one of His followers. Famed cellist, Yo-Yo Ma wrote this about passion, and I think it has some great application for the Jesus follower: “Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.”

May we all be willing to take the necessary risks in sacrificing those things for God that distract and detract so we may unleash our creativity in love for those God calls us to serve. Let’s do it, shall we?