Do you ever feel like your passion to communicate your love for Christ and see others enter His Kingdom is non-exsistent? Maybe there was a time when you were burdened to see others come to know Jesus, but now life feels cluttered, filled with to-dos, noise, and a subtle drift in priorities. That fire for making disciples just…isn’t there. Why does this happen, and how can we reclaim the passion God placed within us?
Comfort Crowds Out the Commission
Let’s be honest, we’re distracted people. From endless notifications to full schedules, it’s easy for our love for Christ and His mission to quietly move to the back burner. Even when we know what matters, our relationship with God can suffer. I have experienced these seasons, where sharing the Gospel feels like just one more thing I am supposed to do.
Here’s the hard truth: We can’t stir up spiritual passion just by gritting our teeth and trying harder. We need something deeper, something supernatural.
Haggai’s Wake-Up Call
God has a way of grabbing our attention when our priorities drift. In Haggai 1, God challenges His people:
“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4 ESV)
Translation? “Are you putting your comfort above My call?” God’s people had grown consumed with their own lives, and the result was dissatisfaction, “You eat, but never have enough… You earn wages, but put them in a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6 ESV).
Sound familiar? No matter how full our calendars get, our souls remain empty when we neglect the work that God has called us to. Then in verse 9 we see God make the obvious point that they had prioritized their own kingdoms over His Kingdom.
“You looked for much, and behold, it came to little…Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” (Haggai 1:9 ESV)
From Reminder to Revival
You would think that the answer is just to remember the mission or to recommit to it. But Haggai’s account takes us a step further. The real turning point comes not from self-effort, but from the Spirit’s intervention:
“And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel…and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord” (Haggai 1:14 ESV).
It wasn’t a pep talk that reignited their passion, it was God Himself, stirring their hearts.
The Apostle Paul gets to the heart of it,“For the love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV).
It’s Christ’s love, not religious obligation, that motivates us to go out and make disciples. When we experience His love, telling others about our Savior becomes a natural overflow, not a forced duty.
Pray
What if the first step isn’t to try harder, but to simply own where we are at and spend in prayer?
“God, I know you’ve called me to make disciples, but I need You to reignite my passion. I repent of my wrong priorities and the distractions that have caused me to neglect living in the power of your love. Awaken my desire to see people know and follow You.”
Let’s pray this together and ask God to rekindle a fire in our hearts for the lost. Imagine what could happen if God’s people prayed this every day.
Next Steps:
- Pray intentionally. Ask God daily to stir up your heart for His mission.
- Reevaluate your priorities. Where are you spending your best time and energy?
- Don’t go it alone. Invite others to pray with you. Revival doesn’t happen in isolation.
- Act as He leads. As God moves, step out in faith and invest in the lives around you.
The Holy Spirit is ready to stir hearts, yours and mine, if only we’ll surrender and ask Him. Will you join me? Let’s pray together that the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit would fill us and motivate us to go and make disciples!
Written by Sam McKeen
