V a l o r L e a d e r B l o g

Our Passion and Purpose

I recently had the priv­i­lege of hear­ing Eric Swan­son speak.  What really stood out to me were some remarks on pas­sion and how they relate to evan­ge­lism and relationships:

1. Evan­gel­i­cally, if we can con­nect peo­ple to the pas­sions God cre­ated in them, then we have an entry point into the Gospel.
2. Rela­tion­ally, if we can con­nect the pas­sions of peo­ple to the big­ger story of the world’s bro­ken­ness, we can help   peo­ple “change the world”.

Have you ever asked your­self or oth­ers if it is pos­si­ble to help change the world?

Ask your­self, what are you pas­sion­ate about?  How has God uniquely gifted you to change the world?  Many of you are head­ing for mil­i­tary ser­vice.  Is the mil­i­tary your pas­sion?  It may or may not be.  Our pro­fes­sion doesn’t have to have the sole own­er­ship of our pas­sion.  But the greater ques­tion is how you can serve the Lord in what you are pas­sion­ate about.  It will take pas­sion to change the world!

We are all very famil­iar with Eph 2:8–9:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of your­selves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast”.

But also with it should be read verse 10:

“For we are His work­man­ship, cre­ated in Christ Jesus for good works, which God pre­pared before­hand so that we would walk in them.”

This should tell us that our sal­va­tion is not just for our secu­rity, but it is what will allow us to ful­fill the pur­poses God cre­ated us for .

Now con­sider 2 Cor 5:10:

“For we must all appear before the judg­ment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

God not only calls us to ful­fill the good works He pre­pares for us, but He also equips and  pre­pares us to do it.  God has uniquely cre­ated each of us with dif­fer­ent pas­sion and He has pre­pared dif­fer­ent works for us to accom­plish.  We each have a unique assign­ment from the Lord. Pas­sion is an emo­tion that can be repressed through doubt or fear; or it can be embraced and used might­ily to accom­plish the tasks that He has assigned us.

Pas­sion is an indis­pens­able qual­ity for any leader.  Authen­tic pas­sion cap­ti­vates and inspires those around us.  By lead­ing spir­i­tu­ally, truly lead­ing, our pas­sion for fol­low­ing Christ should moti­vate oth­ers to catch fire.

Father help us under­stand how you cre­ated us for a pur­pose to help change the world. Help us to access the pas­sion that you have put inside our hearts.  Allow us to live unhin­dered from the thorns of this world and to live freely, pas­sion­ately for Christ.  Amen.