I have been reading a book called “Not a Fan” by Kyle Idleman. The whole focus of this book is “Are you a fan or a follower of Jesus.” A fan is someone who will cheer and get excited about their team, but when things get serious and commitments are needed they back away. A follower has a deeper commitment, an attitude that will “hang in there when things get tough.” Kyle draws the line in the sand and asks the question, “Are you are fan or a follower of Jesus Christ?”
What happens if you are a follower but you have lost your passion and love for Jesus. It happens to even the most committed followers of Jesus. What do you do to restore your love and zeal for Christ?
Have you ever heard of the word “sloth”? You may relate sloth to an exotic animal 
from South America. They are cute and they look like a stuff animal. I saw a sloth while on a mission trip to Peru several years ago. What I learned about sloths is they are very lazy. They lay around all day and move very slowly. They don’t get excited about much and their idea of fun is to lay around and eat. The Bible talks about sloth as one of the seven deadly sins. It is hard to imagine that being lazy is a deadly sin, but being lazy goes much deeper. Lazy is not just a physical problem, but a spiritual problem too. “Spiritual apathy” is a word that describes many believers. Their attitude is “I don’t care. I know God died for me, but I don’t care. I know Jesus went to the cross to give me eternal life, but I am not motivated to love him back.”
Maybe there was a time you really followed Jesus, but now, your passion is gone. Life is so fast that you have given up, things have happened that has taken away your zeal and desire to know and follow God. This is what happened to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4.
“I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love…” (italics mine)
You may have lost or left your love for Jesus. Your passion is gone and your desire to even go to church has dried out. God looks at us like a bride looks at her husband. Understand our honeymoon with God should never be over. God’s love and passion for us is found in every book in the Bible. There is not a day or an hour that God is not thinking about you and me.
David says in Psalm 139:17-18, “How precious are Your thoughts to me, O’God. How great is the sum of them. They would out number the grains of sand;…”
My grandfather died when I was twelve. For the next twenty-two years my grandmother lived alone without him. They were married for forty-four years. She would often talk about how much she missed him and how much she loved him. She stayed and lived in the same house after he passed away. I know out of habit she would see him. She would often talk to me about seeing him again in heaven. This kind of love is what Jesus expresses towards us, “I want to be with you, spend time with you and for you to know Me more.”
If you have lost your love and passion for God, just come to Him, just as you are and ask Him to give you a passion and desire to know Him. He is thinking of you right now.
Mark Keyes
Vice-President of Infusion Ministries
Mark Keyes
