I love roller coasters. The jubilant feelings of waiting in line and the excitement that builds up while I wait. And after riding the roller coaster, I want to tell all my friends about how great it was and how badly I want to ride again. If you’ve ever ridden a roller coaster, you know what I’m talking about. Thousands upon thousands of people flock to amusement parks every year to experience these same feelings and embrace this same excitement.
But, where has this excitement for Jesus and His church gone?
The Bible says in Mark 7:36-37, “Jesus urged them [the people of the town] to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. ‘He's done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.’”
In the passage above, Jesus has just performed miracles, healing the deaf and the mute in front of the multitudes. Then something interesting happens, He urges them to shut up! However, the multitudes keep talking about it even more, professing their excitement to anyone and every one around them. They just couldn’t hold back their urge to talk about Jesus and all His goodness because they saw it first hand!
What has stopped us from being as excited for Jesus and His church? The answer lies in where we place our excitement – in what we are excited about and why.
This past summer our youth group Generation Next went to a youth conference in Georgia; it was an amazing, Spirit-filled experience that left our entire youth group and leaders with an excitement for Jesus. Unfortunately, after a month or so that excitement dwindled and the passion for Jesus that was so consuming burned out. As I recall on my own excitement, I noticed that I relied more on a conference to change me than Jesus. My passion was more about going back each summer to rekindle that fire than fanning the flames and increasing it through the year. My point here is that when Jesus becomes the source of your excitement, it well never be exasperated because your faith and hope comes from an everlasting God who continually shows His power and goodness like he did to the multitudes in Mark.
If we implement this knowledge into our everyday lives – if we base our excitement in Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross, our circumstances won’t dictate how much excitement we have for Jesus. No amount of time will diminish our passion because we are connected to an unquenchable source. The enemy will try to do everything he can to steal your joy, believe me! He knows that if we get excited about Jesus circumstances won’t affect our steadfast faith, but he also knows that if we are not rooted in Jesus circumstances lead us to exhaustion and tirelessness.
This leads me too my next point, for most Christians, myself included, church becomes an exhausting ritual and quickly fades. I have seen many Christians come to church like Jesus never died on the cross, never broke the chains of death, and never rose again on the third day. Cheer up! Jesus lives and when we come to church it is a sincere testament that what He did is true. In essence, church should be the happiest place on earth where lives are healed, the lost are found, and the captive are liberated.
Even if you don’t see God’s miracles at this stage in your life or if you are looking at a one-way road down the avenue of disappointment, you can still rejoice knowing that God has everything in position to bless you tremendously, that Jesus already paid every price for us to be alive in Him, and that our sins and inadequacies are wiped away. This should get you excited!
The best feeling in life is not riding a roller coaster, despite how much we love it; the best feeling is when we don’t allow situations in life, big or small, to determine the precious value of our excitement. Walk around knowing that God’s divine, supernatural, and all knowing favor is on you – you have a reason to jump, dance, and shout! We are chosen; let’s act like it!
Amazing words!!!
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