Get Your Passion Back: Stay Positive

Get Your Passion Back

Scripture References

• 1 Corinthians 15:57-58
• Psalm 51
• Revelation 2:4-5

Overview

Spiritual passion can fade, especially in disruptive seasons like COVID-19. Craig Groeschel calls believers to recover their first-love enthusiasm—“on theos,” life lived in God. Drawing from Paul, David, and Jesus’ words to the Ephesian church, he contrasts daily God-fueled zeal with comfort-driven complacency and shows how to reignite joy, purpose, and influence.

Main Points

Two kinds of people

• Those who let circumstances set their enthusiasm.
• Those who let God-born enthusiasm shape their circumstances.
• Enthusiasm (en theos) literally means “in God”; it is birthed in His presence, not manufactured by personality or mood.

“But thank God — He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ… always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

Where true enthusiasm comes from

• It is not the task that gives meaning but who you do it for.
  Illustration: Turning off lights at night became joyful because it served Amy.
• Spiritual enthusiasm grows through daily rhythms:
  1. Trust God daily.
  2. Walk with God daily.
  3. Worship God daily.

David: enthusiasm gained and lost

• Gained: As a shepherd-boy facing Goliath he ran to battle “in the name of the Lord Almighty,” confident from previous daily victories (lion, bear).
• Lost: As king he stayed home “in the time when kings go off to war,” drifted into comfort, lust, and catastrophic sin.
• Summary contrast:
  • With enthusiasm—ran to serve his God.
  • With apathy—walked the roof to serve his comfort.
• Root issue: shifting eyes from calling to comfort.

How to get your passion back

1. Recognize the drift. “Consider how far you’ve fallen.” (Revelation 2)
2. Repent. Change direction; turn from comfort to calling.
3. Repeat the first works. Return to daily trust, walk, and worship.
4. Pray for restoration. “Create in me a pure heart… restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” (Psalm 51)

Illustration: Airport-kiosk employee sang blessings over travelers; her environment didn’t dictate her spirit—Jesus did.
Story: Craig’s early zeal—Jesus hats, Christian T-shirts, a painted-cross tennis racket, and even a “Jesus watch”—but years later he caught himself grumbling about the very ministry he once prayed for, signaling lost passion.

Key Truths

• Enthusiasm fades when intimacy with God fades; it flourishes where daily communion is kept.
• Meaning is measured by the Master we serve, not the magnitude of the task.
• We drift naturally toward complacency, never toward discipline or purpose.
• Spiritual zeal is recoverable through repentance and repeated first-love practices.
• God-fueled enthusiasm can transform any ordinary setting into a place of ministry.

Response

• Examine whether comfort has displaced calling in your life.
• Repent for areas where spiritual discipline has lapsed.
• Re-establish daily habits of Scripture, prayer, and worship.
• Serve in small, unseen ways “enthusiastically for the Lord.”
• Speak and act so that inner God-given joy reshapes the climate around you.

Closing

Craig urged listeners not to settle for muted faith but to let “the light that’s in me” pierce darkness. Spiritual passion isn’t lost; it’s left—and can be reclaimed today by doing again the things done at first.

“Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically for the Lord.”

Prayer

The congregation prayed for restored joy and for anyone far from God to receive Jesus’ forgiveness and new life, committing: “My life is not my own; I give it all to You. Fill me with Your Spirit so I can walk with You daily and serve You enthusiastically.”