Passion for God; what is it?

In the book Why Small Groups?, Greg Somerville writes:

The single greatest contribution you can make to a group is your own passionate pursuit of God.

With that in view, Somerville asks the following question in the discussion portion of the chapter:

How would you rate your passion for God at this time? (1 = ice cold, 10 = red hot)

As I thought about this question and brought it up in our group the other night, one response was: what exactly is "passion for God"? I think that is an insightful question. Christians often speak about having a passion for God, being "on fire", or lacking passion for God. But what exactly does that mean?

I suggested that passion for God is summed up by Paul's words in Philippians 1:21:

For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

To be a "10" with passion for God is, in my estimation, being so zealous for God that you regard dying (and all you stand to lose in dying) as gain, because in dying you gain Christ. When Christ is that valuable that you are able to look joyfully at the prospect of losing all to gain Him, you're red hot in your passion for God.

At least that's my thought. What does everyone else think? How would you define "passion for God" if someone asked you what that meant?

Leave a comment and let me know.