Burn in me your desire / A passion worthy of Your name.

Man, how can I even fathom to one day have a passion that is worthy of God? You know the person who created the earth, who sent his son Jesus to die for all our sins, who makes the blind see, etc. Who am I to be worthy of that?

As these thoughts and questions began to turn in my head like a never ending carousel I honestly started to feel defeated. I began to look at my life and realize I could be doing so much more. So why wasn’t I? The “reasons” started flowing: I’m a senior at UCF and every day is filled with writing papers, and reading story after story (the perks of being an English major) so I can’t read an extra chapter in my bible. Oh, and I work every weekend so I can’t go to our monthly prayer service, The River because I have to finish my homework for the week. Oh, and I’m already involved in leadership with Xstream, our high school ministry and Faith Worship Arts so really I have no extra time to get more involved.

As the list began to grow I started to realize that though all these could be valid reasons, they’re really just excuses.

Maybe yours are similar or maybe you have even more going on in your life. However, whichever way you look at them all the “reasons” that you tell yourself to justify your nonexistent or dull passion for God are ugly, fat, slimy excuses.

Okay now breathe.

If you’re still reading and you started to feel convicted or embarrassed know that I’m not trying to come off as “holier than thou” because in all honesty these words I write cut me pretty deep as well. It humiliates me that at one point or another, these excuses started to fill my life and I started to see my relationship with God become bland and not at all special. Thank goodness for His mercy though right? They are new every day!

When the lyrics “Burn in me your desire / A passion worthy of Your name” were sung recently at a Voice service I began to really wonder what those words meant and how I can I actually achieve that since you know who am I to have a passion that is worthy of God? Well it took a lot of mediating on and asking God for wisdom and this is what I got:

Though I may never reach this status (because as Christians we’re always or should be reaching new levels with God) I have to live my life striving to reach it. I know what you’re thinking, how can I strive to have this passion if all the “reasons” I laid out consume my life? Don’t worry here are some things I’ve learned that are easy for anyone to adopt in their everyday life:

1) Start your day off with this simple prayer: God help me to have a passion worthy of Your name. Yeah, it’s that easy.

2) Make a list of all the things you want to do to strengthen your relationship with God – read uplifting books, pray longer than the time you’ve set aside already, watch different sermons throughout the week, join a cadence, etc. then make a separate list of all your daily obligations. Lastly, now this is the important part, fit your daily obligations around the items on the first list.  God or things that enhance your relationship with Him shouldn’t be penciled in your schedule. Your daily work/school/social life should fit around Him.

3)  If you’re like me and enjoy listening to music or watching t.v. in the morning while you get ready for the day try substituting those top 40 hits and re-runs of New Girl with some great worship music. It’s a good way to start your day off with positive thoughts and some encouragement. I dare you to try it!

4) Surround yourself with people who will challenge/inspire you to go deeper with God. A real friend is someone who cares about your Christian walk and who will call you out if they see you doing the bare minimum.

Now these are things you have to constantly work on. Just like losing weight it won’t happen overnight, you have to willingly make this part of your daily routine. Passion is an emotion that can fade once we stop feeding it or in this case once we become stagnant with our relationship with God. Don’t lose hope! If we genuinely strive to have that passion worthy of His name, God will meet us and bless us with more than we could ever imagine.

– Kathy Vega