Passion Outweighing Fear
1 John 4:18 Amplified Bible (AMP)
18There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].
I have many things that I am passionate about, especially as it concerns people, health, working out, writing and helping people. I found myself struggling to accomplish these things because of fear, especially recently. My husband and I began to work out again, I had fear of beginning again, because of the pain I had encountered, the last time I started and understanding I was older and I had more weight on me than when I previously worked out, I feared having to face being challenged in my body. The same thing happened as we began to answer the call on our lives as it concerned ministry and writing the devotionals and compiling this book. I looked around me and so much had changed, people I had once looked to and thought were my support were now gone and I was left to face the fear of beginning this project, in a different status. But as I had been conversing with God, He began to minister to me and I heard the words “let your passion outweigh your fear.” I have been pressing through the pain of morning walks and workouts and the tedious nature of hours of editing and compiling, because I let passion become the force that drives me instead of the fear.
I am blessed to speak with people and have them reach out to me in many ways because of these writings and I find that fear can often replace our passion if we don’t understand the nature of what passion is. Passion is a love for something, but it is no ordinary love, it is a driving love, something that pushes and prompts us to move beyond what is often comfortable for us. Well love and fear definitely do not go together. God is love and all that is His is rooted in love, and His perfect love can cast away fear if we allow it to. Fearing what we don’t know, like an outcome is a apart of the manipulative nature of being fearful. I have heard people say fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, well in the case of the work out it wasn’t false it was true, but it was a circumstance that could be overcome and rectified. In the case of writing, I have no idea what people will say or think of this book I will release, so it is my choice to allow the love or passion that I have for God and my craft guide me, and not the unknown or what is a supposition. As I have counseled with people and shared with them, the one thing that has been impressed upon me is that no matter what LOVE should lead our choices and our thinking. Love is not and in no ways is a negative thing, so we should look to what is positive, look to what is driving us and burning within us; what it is that we feel or see that God has anointed us to do.
Fear can crush our passion if we let it become our focal point. But if we are allowing the passion for the things of God and the gifts and talents that He has blessed us with become the focus and the momentum by which we move, it will be likely that we will not allow anything to get in our way, because we will understand that the properties of our passion is love and love is stronger than anything. After all God was passionate about us, so much so it caused us to give us the very best withholding nothing, which was Jesus, who endured and faced the cross giving little thought for himself or the pain that would await Him through the process. Let not just your conscious, but your passion be your guide!
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