Let all that I am praise the Lord.
Psalm 146:1 NLT
Christian scholar Larry Taunton launched a national campaign to interview college atheists. As a result, he discovered, “Our former church-attending students expressed [positive] feelings for those Christians who unashamedly embraced biblical teaching. [Michael] told us, ‘. . .Christianity is something that if you really believed it, it would change your life and you would want to change [the lives] of others. I haven’t seen too much of that.’ ”
It’s not enough to love God with a passing “I love you a lot” sentimentalism. Jesus told us to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27 NIV). God wants devotion like David’s, who said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1 KJV).
This kind of passion characterized the apostles, missionaries, and evangelists throughout history whose fervent devotion spread like fire and changed the landscape of Christianity. We aren’t called just to love God but to love Him with intensity.
As Puritan minister Samuel Ward said, “The fervency of the true zealot is in the spirit, not in show. . .such a man’s wroth cannot be set forth with the tongues of men and of angels.”
God, I pray that my passion for You is strengthened so it shows through my daily life. Put a fire in my soul that burns like a beacon. Amen.
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Today’s reading was adapted from Daily Wisdom for Women: 2017 Devotional Collection with permission from Barbour Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reading was written by Sabrina McDonald.