"Passion for Jesus" by Mike Bickle

My friend Greg gave me an awesome book a month ago that I finally finished this morning. It's called "Passion for Jesus" and was written by Mike Bickle. What an amazing and challenging book. WOW! The last chapter really got me. It was titled “Wasting Your Life on Jesus” and it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I think God’s been preparing me to read it for several days now. I think that basically everything that has been going on in my life has been pointing me towards the concepts presented in that book. It challenged my whole concept of what is truly important, what truly constitutes a life well-spent, a life worth living. Basically, the gist of the book is that if we could get a handle on how passionately God loves us and how He longs to ravish us and consume us, then our lives would be revolutionized. We would be transformed by that knowledge and would in turn pursue Him just as passionately. After reading this book, and after the way God has dealt with me through its pages, I want to be so entirely sold out for Jesus that my friends and family all go “Huh?? What’s got into her?” Which would of course be a great opportunity to tell them! There’s a paragraph on p 165 of the book that says “I want to do the extravagant thing for God. Out of love and gratitude I want to do that which is not required.” That pretty much sums it up! God doesn't necessarily require anything radical, but sometimes He does stir our hearts towards it. That's what I feel like He's doing in me - stirring me up so that I'm no longer satisfied with "normal Christianity". Opening my eyes to what He has in store for me, what life could be like if I devoted myself fully to Him! Abundant life, indeed.

There was also a section in the last chapter about Mary of Bethany, about the contrast between her & her sister Martha. It talked of how Mary wanted to just sit at the feet of Jesus - to simply adore Him, worship Him, and wait on Him. I’ve focused too much on being a Martha in my walk with the Lord (and often haven’t been a very good Martha either!). What I mean by that is that I've tried to do all the things that I thought the Lord was requiring, almost trying to earn my way into Heaven. "You can't ever say no to anything anyone from the church wants you to do or you'll go straight to hell" - that sort of thing. In the process, you end up focusing on the doing, on how you're performing, and not simply being. (I read another great book this month called "The Art of Being" that talked about that.) I think both Mary and Martha were honestly trying to serve, but Jesus says that Mary chose the better way. Well, that's the choice I want to make! I want God's best for my life - I want to sit at His feet every chance I get and just soak up every word! So that’s the prayer of my heart today. For God to continue to put a desire in me to be more like Mary of Bethany - to sit at the feet of my Savior and worship Him fully and completely with ever fiber of my being.

Praise You, God, for your awesome power and love and beauty and grace and majesty! Your ways are above my ways and I stand in awe of You. I can’t even fathom what all You have in store for my life, but Lord – I’m ready. I’m willing. Father, send me! Take me! Use me! I surrender – totally and completely. Thank You, Jesus!