For I know your eagerness, ...and your zeal has stirred up most of them (2 Corinthians 9:2, HCSB).Passion is something that comes from the Lord. Effective women leaders are passionate and have a biblical direction to their passion. Think about the women leaders that you know. Chances are that God has given them a passion for something and they are enthusiastic about that purpose that God has called them to. Women follow women with passion and who know where they are going.
We may think we are passionate about what God has called us to, but when we get out there with a little bump in the road, we can change our priorities in a hurry. Let someone question us or get upset with us and we are off and running, just sure that it was all a mistake and that we must not be on the right pathway.
Passionate aim is something that God stirs deep within us. It is what drives us and motivates us. It makes us get up in the morning and keeps us from going to bed at night. It occupies our time, our energy and all our very being. Passionate aim is who we are in Christ. It is the driving force behind what we do and why you do it. It is who we are when no one else is around. It is what makes us tick. Passionate aim is what people need and want in their lives.
Jesus was passionate. He was passionate about His mission. He was passionate about spending time with the Father on a daily basis. He was passionate about people and making sure they heard the message of truth and love and salvation. He never tired of telling stories. He never tired of healing souls. It drove him in every area and walked Him to the cross. Don't get the idea that He was never tired physically, because we know that He was. But He never stopped His mission because a greater force, His heavenly Father, compelled him.
I believe that God gives everyone a passion to fulfill the purpose or calling He has for his or her life. Maybe that calling is in full-time ministry or maybe it is not. Each one is called to know Christ, share Him, and lead others to do the same. However, each one will do in with different gifts and in different ways. When it comes from Him and we spend time with Him, then He can grow and develop the passion that He has placed within us.
Excerpt from Women Leading Women, Chapter 5, Jaye Martin, B&H Academic, 2008.
