Keeping Your Passion

KEEPING YOUR PASSION

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”    

Mark 12:30 - 31 (NIV)

WITH ALL YOUR HEART…

SEEK GOD …with all your heart. ​​   Deuteronomy 4:29

LOVE GOD …with all your heart.    ​​Deuteronomy 6:5

SERVE GOD …with all your heart.    ​​Deuteronomy 10:12

OBEY GOD …with all your heart.    ​​Deuteronomy 30:2

TRUST GOD …with all your heart.    ​​Proverbs 3:5

DO EVERYTHING …with all your heart. ​   Colossians 3:23

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11 (NIV)  

SEVEN THINGS THAT DESTROY YOUR PASSION:

LOSING SIGHT OF YOUR PURPOSE

I replied, “But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.”    Isaiah 49:4a (NLT)  

BURYING YOUR GOD-GIVEN GIFTS

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.    1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

LIVING WITH AN UNSUSTAINABLE RHYTHM

Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly.    1 Timothy 4:7 (NLT)  

CARRYING SIN IN SILENCE  

“My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief.”    

Psalm 38:4, 6 (NLT)  

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.    1 John 1:9 (NIV)  

CONFLICT THAT HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.    James 1:19 - 20 (NLT)

TRYING TO DO LIFE ALONE

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.    Ecclesiastics 4:9 - 10 (NIV)

NEGLECTING YOUR SOUL

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.    Colossians 2:6 - 7 (NLT)  

“The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.”  – C.S. Lewis

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.    Revelation 2:4 - 5 (NIV)  

THREE STEPS FOR KEEPING YOUR PASSION:

“Consider how far you have fallen!”  

“Repent”

“…and do the things you did at first.”