Renewing Your Spiritual Passion with Study Guide

MacDonald scored a home run with this excellent book. The author looks at the journey of life we are all on and catalogs the issues that drain us and slow us down. He then states that spiritual passion has an ethereal quality about it, and if not taken care of it will soon disappear. He then shows us how to regain lost spiritual passion through safe places, still times and special friends.Macdonalds passionate writing style is a welcome breeze of refreshment. Finally, I was reading an author who not only writes of the things of God, but employs beautiful prose in doing so. As I read his chapter on positive and negative people, it brought to mind the people I have dealt with over the years. I realized that it was the Very Nice People and the Very Draining People who occupy most of my time. It is the authors contention that while we do not ignore these people, we should try to focus our time on those who enhance our ministries. In this respect, he echoes John Maxwells dictum about spending most of our people time with the top twenty percent of influences in the church.MacDonald needs to be more precise in distinguishing between ambition and passionate desire; the distinction he makes seems somewhat artificial. He says that ambition is the urge to get ahead, to establish oneself powerfully. My question is this: Just what is the difference between this and the urge to do great things for Christ and profile security for one?s family. Ambition, in itself, is not evil. It is the motivation behind our ambition that either enhances it or taints it. Too many pastors have too little ambition; they settle for small vision, mediocre ministries and call themselves spiritual. I highly recommend this book. It is written in a style and manner that is delightful to read and gives solid advice on how to renew our passion for God.

For those, like me, who find themselves wondering why such hard work for jobs, family, church, etc. result in such little joy and satisfaction, Mr. MacDonald's writing may bring some solice. I found great relief in his experiences and antecdotes and also found the initiative to investigate why I lacked spritual passion. The book provided me with answers as to why I lacked passion, what sapped my passion and what elements could be placed in my life to maintain passion. This book was recommended to me and I would recommend (and have recommended) it to others.