GOD'S PASSION FOR YOUR PASSION!

It takes God to love God. Loving God requires a loving God. It takes the passion of God to have a passion for God. To love God as we were made to love Him requires God to take the initiative for only then will slumbering and self centered souls be aroused to seek Him with all of our hearts and relish the revelation of Himself in His Son Jesus Christ.

Let us look at Jesus Christ’s high priestly prayer in John 17. He prayed this the night before He was crucified. It is His longest prayer. At the end of His prayer we see the climax of his desire:
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:24-26).

What is Jesus' final goal for us? "That the love with which you [Father] have loved me may be in them." Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. As I said before, it takes God to love God. It takes the passion of God to have a passion for God. God the Father desires to impart His own divine love into the hearts of His redeemed. His Son echoed this desire in the high priestly prayer He prayed right before His death, crying out, "Father, put in them the love with which You love Me!" The love God imparts to us for Him is the same burning desire the Father has for the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we were created, chosen, and saved in order to receive it!

Think about this. The love God has for the Son Jesus is praying that we will have in us! That prayer is also a promise! That is, the love for Jesus in us will be the very Father’s love for the Son. This is the secret of a peculiar passion! We will not merely love Jesus with our paltry love, with our weak and fickle and fleeting and misplaced passion. But our love for Jesus will be infused with the divine love between the Father and the Son. Our destiny is to enter into the "fellowship of the burning heart." The three Persons of the Trinity have burning hearts of love for one another, and the redeemed are beckoned into this fellowship with God's heart.

How? The first time I actually understood what Jesus was saying I found it difficult to believe. How could I love Jesus like God the Father loves His very own Son? Of course no one can love anyone to the same degree or quality that God loves them. But on the other hand, neither can we be as holy as God, yet God says to us, "You shall be holy for I am holy." It is through the power of His Spirit in us that we can walk in holiness. By that same power, we can live our lives with a consuming passion for our Lord.

What God commands us to do-love with the love the Father has for the Son, God also gives the love that we need to love the Son! Remember Augustine who said, “Give me the grace [O Lord] to do as you command, and command me to do what you will! . . . O holy God . . . when your commands are obeyed, it is from you that we receive the power to obey them."

Think about many of the impossible commands that deal with our emotions. Rejoice in the Lord? (Psalm 37:4; Philippians 4:4); “Thou hast put gladness in my heart.” (Psalm 4:7). Obey from the heart? (Deuteronomy 30:2); “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts"(Jeremiah 31:33) Fear the Lord? (Psalm 34:9); “I will put my fear in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:40). Be filled with the Spirit? (Ephesians 5:16); “I will put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 11: 9; Ezekiel 36:27). Dear reader, can you see that God is in the “putting” business!”

So the command of loving God passionately is the prayer of Jesus for you, the promise of Jesus to you, and the provision of Jesus in you. The Holy Spirit pours out God's very affection into the human heart regardless of our sinful, weak, and passionless hearts. It is a supernatural activity that transcends the human condition. As Paul says, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit releases in us the capacity to love and know God far beyond our ability with His ability. That is one of the most dynamic dimensions of the grace of God for the redeemed: that our hearts burn with love and are fascinated with the knowledge of God. What God commands, God gives!

If the aim of Jesus in John 17:26 comes true, God’s love for his Son will become our love; God’s passion for His Son will become our passion; and Jesus will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never be boring or empty or disappointing or frustrating. No greater treasure could be conceived than Jesus. Moreover, our ability to have a fire and passion and joy in Him will not be limited by human weakness. We will love the Son of God with the very love of his omnipotently loving Father. God’s love for His Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this passion and love will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son never ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them, and therefore, our loving will never die.

Next blog we will see how we can receive this passion.

Prayer
"Father in heaven, I have heard your command to be boiling in my spirit for you. I agree with Your Son Jesus that it is required of me to love You with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, and all of my strength. Yet, I confess that my attempts to love You in the way that You require and the way that You deserve have utterly failed. I thank You that you have heard the prayers of your Son Jesus and so I ask in faith and trust that You would grant to me an impartation of the Holy Spirit to love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with the very love that You love Him. I ask this in Jesus Name, AMEN!