Hearts

“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” —Romans 12:11

As passion wanes in other areas of our life, it causes trouble. In marriages, people can get tempted to look for passion somewhere else, leading to affairs, divorces and even something as simple but hurtful as inappropriate crushes. When you are no longer that giddy, all-you-can-think-about-super-passionate-in-love, it’s harder to be forgiving, to be kind, to serve that other person. When we stray or lose our passion for God, we do the same thing. When our passion wanes, it’s so much harder to serve at church when it’s something we don’t care for: cleaning toilets, ushering, spending another Sunday in the children’s ministry, forgiving the person who is endlessly mean to us, etc.

After a while it’s not only our involvement at church and with others that becomes difficult, but our journey with God can get tedious, hard, and even boring. We find excuses to stop attending church, stop caring about obedience and sin, start looking away from God for our love and fulfillment, and even can stop caring about God all together. Just like it’s important for us to keep your passion going for your spouse, it is even more important to us to keep or passion and zeal for God. And just like you have to maintain a relationship with your spouse, we need to maintain your relationship with God. Do you pay attention to your passion for God? What have you done to renew that passion when it wains?

Bigger challenge: Think about what you would typically do for a romantic relationship: go back to the place of a first date, buy a piece of jewelery with very specific meaning, memorialize the special life-changing moments between you two, etc. Now apply that to God. Do at least one thing to commemorate, remember or re-experience the passion you have had for God. I encourage you to go beyond journaling or just a conversation — make it a real out-of-the-norm moment for you and God.