September 12

God has created us to be passionate. He wants us to have intense feelings regarding the gift of life He’s bestowed upon us. He wants us to carry this intensity into every aspect of our being. He wants us to care about our work, about our relationships, about the lost who know Him not, about our faith.

Our stumbling block is often a result of our focus settling too fully upon the temporal aspects of passion. We invest ourselves in the things of time but forget that everything we do, everything we say, everything we are is to be covered by the shed blood of Jesus—that He is to be in every aspect of our lives.

When we neglect to remember that He is to pervade our reality, we tend to allow our emotions to overcome our reason and to overcome our spirit. When we are out of tune with the Lord, negative emotions come to the fore in our lives. We allow frustration, depression, fear, and anger to rule in Jesus’ place. The Word is replete with guidance as to how we should allow our spirits to be controlled by His Spirit—thereby negating the impact of destructive emotions.

In Proverbs 14:29, for example, we are told, “He who is slow to anger has great understanding.” To realize the negative impact of anger is the first step toward conquering it. Proverbs 16:32 states the necessity for overcoming anger even more succinctly—“The man who can control himself is mightier than the army that can conquer a city.” If we are to realize the fullness of our potential as people of passion, those things that drive our emotions must be given to Him.