LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Hosea 6:3 “Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

There are four eternal truths found in today’s Scripture verse. The first is based on the words “Press On.” We are to have a passion to know God.

Have you ever thought about what the word passion means? For most of us it has an emotional context. We think of passion in terms of intense desire for things or goals. We equate passion with love – from love of things to love of people to love of activities. While all these applications of passion have some validity, did you know that the word passion primarily means suffering. Yet according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary that meaning is obsolete? Culture has re-defined the word passion from its original roots to something more definitive of man’s fleshly desires.

The real definition of passion originated in the Bible. Our English word passion is the translation of the Greek word paskho and is translated 39 times in the New Testament as suffering. That’s why the time of our Savior’s life between His arrest and His resurrection is called the passion of Christ.

So what does this mean for us today? Pressing on requires the courage to suffer for what one believes in. There is no true passion in a person’s life without the willingness to suffer as they press on to achieve what they believe in.

A rock-climber has a passion for reaching the top, which means they will suffer whatever physical pain and contortions of the body are necessary to accomplish it, all potentially based on a love for adrenaline and the belief that the meaning of life will be found in the view from the top.

A single mom has a passion to protect and raise her children in a safe environment and will endure whatever financial and emotional suffering she must to see her children grow up strong and stable.

A football player has a passion to be the best at his position and will endure whatever pain he must to recover from injury and play through pain to become the MVP of his league.

Passion always requires the courage to suffer for what one believes. It is the same in pressing on to know the Lord. We are not passionate for Christ if we live in fear of rejection or retribution from the world. It is unreasonable to state that we are passionate for the Lord and yet not press on to know Him through consistent prayer and Bible Study, using our busy schedules as an excuse. We dare not claim to be passionate for the souls of the lost while we hide our faith in public and seek to be accepted by our culture.

Passion always requires suffering. It is the nature of the word that originated with Christ and is fulfilled in the context of Christ’s life in us. Pressing on to know Christ is to be our passion, because Christ’s passion to know us sent Him to the cross. His love for us was courageously expressed in His sacrifice for our sins. He suffered for us, so we who are His children will also joyfully suffer for Him. He is our passion, and His passion becomes our life. We will press on to know Him no matter what it costs or how it hurts.

Pastor John