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Monday, March 28, 2011

A Passion For Thee

A Passion For Thee
By: Joe Zichterman

Set my heart, O dear Father,
On Thee, and Thee only,
Give me a thirst for Thy presence divine.
Lord, keep my focus on loving Thee wholly,
Purge me from earth;
Turn my heart after Thine.

Chorus:
A Passion for Thee;
O Lord, set a fire in my soul, and a thirst for my God.
Hear Thou my prayer,
Lord, Thy power impart
Not just to serve, but to love Thee with all of my heart.

Father fill with Thy Spirit, and fit me for service,
Let love for Christ ev'ry motive inspire;
Teach me to follow in selfless submission,
Be Thou my joy and my soul's one desire.
Chorus

This song is the prayer of my heart. I first heard it a few years ago at one of our Bright Lights meetings. Whenever I sing it, I think of how my heart's one desire is to love God more and more each day. In a world full of cares and distractions it is easy to set our hearts on other things besides God. For me, it's easy to set my heart on my dreams and the plans that I make, but I have come to realize that God is the author and finisher of my faith and it is He who will do work in my life. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He will give thee the desires of thine heart." I used to think that this meant if I was a Christian, God would give me the things I wanted most. But, that is not what the psalmist was saying. "Delight thyself in the Lord..." If I am delighting in the Lord, I will have a passion for serving Him, for obeying His laws, for loving His Word, etc. Then my desire will be for God's perfect plan to be fulfilled in my life. I will desire to glorify God. I will desire to further His kingdom.
I want to love Christ above everything else. I pray that He would keep my focus on loving Him wholly, because He has given me everything; Life, breath... everything. I can do NOTHING for Him. Anything that I do, is really only Christ working through me. Therefore, I, with my own power, cannot love God. That is why I must pray, and beg Him to fill me with His love; to give me a love and passion for Him greater than anything else in my life.
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. My motive for everything that I do, should be to bring glory to God. Oh, this hurts! So often I fall short and find myself doing things for other reasons than to glorify God. That is why I must pray, "Let love for Christ ev'ry motive inspire."
I could go on and on about this song that has become another one of my favorites. I've been thinking about it alot lately because I played it for my piano recital. May this prayer of mine become your prayer too. I pray God fills us with love and a passion for Him. We must strive to quit putting our hopes and desires on other things than Christ. Let Him be the motive for all we do and say!
In Christ,
Kaila

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