Protecting the Passion; Staying on Fire for Jesus

Part 2 of 3: Don’t Worry

Have you noticed that your chances of finding someone who is lively and passionate for God grows smaller the older that people become? This leads many of us to believe that passion is only something that young people can enjoy. Yet Jesus taught that being a passionate follower of God has nothing to do with age and a great deal more to do with where we chose to pour our passion.
Passion for money, for sex, for power, for being loved by our peers, even for academics gradually destroys us because all of those eventually fail us. Not only that, but they suck the life out of our walk with God when we make those things the obsession of our lives. Here’s what Jesus had to say about people who start out passionately going after God but get bogged down in the world:
“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22 NKJV emphasis mine)

What about my tuition bill? What about finding a beautiful wife or a loving husband? What about working a good job so I can get the nice car, nice house, etc.? What about keeping up with fashion so I fit in and am accepted by my friends? What about that 2,000 word paper and my test next week!?

Don’t worry about it. Be diligent. Do what God has given you to do for today, but don’t worry about tomorrow. God is good. Perfectly good. He is trustworthy and He wants to bless His children. Still, He promises us that things won’t be easy. The good news is that He has overcome the world. (see John 16:33)

We can count on worries to knock on the door of our hearts almost every day, but here is Jesus’ advice on what we are to do when we are tempted to become worried about everything that the world throws at us:

“Therefore do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles [the unsaved, worldly people] seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:31-34 NKJV)

Seems like pretty simple advice, right? “Don’t worry.” But that command from Jesus is not easy to follow for many of us. Ultimately that is because we doubt His goodness, His desire to provide for us, the integrity of His character and His power to effect change in our lives. We’ll look deeper into how we can renew our trust in God’s promises in the next blog. For now, let’s decide not to worry and that will help us keep our passion for God burning brightly.