How To Ignite Passion For God

One of the questions I get asked frequently is, “How do I become more passionate about God?”  It’s a simple question with a somewhat nuanced answer.  In this article I want to share a powerful principle the Lord taught me years ago about one way we can direct our hearts to be more passionate for him.

In Matthew 6:21 Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” 

This verse reveals that where we put our treasure (finances) determines what we value or are passionate about. How is that you may ask?  Let me explain.  My wife and I recently purchased a new car.  It is our first new car in almost 10 years and I am very passionate about making sure it is well maintained.  The reason is we just put a lot of our treasure into the purchase of the vehicle.  When we did, part of my heart went toward that car too.  Right now we are passionate to about how we maintain it, keep it washed, and  park away from other vehicles so it doesn’t get scratched 🙂 

You are probably thinking it is pretty immature of me to value a car so much and I”ll agree with you it is. In the scheme of things it is a car and it’s not that important yet it has a piece of my heart.  Why?  Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:21 reveal why my heart values that car so much.  I put a lot of treasure (finances) into it.  

Many people want to value and be passionate about God without putting much treasure into Him.  They try to live the Christian life and go to church, read their Bible, and be a good person, but they have never settled the issues of finances with the Lord.  They either don’t give or don’t give consistently to the Lord and this hinders their ability to experience passion.

In Matthew 6:21 Jesus is saying our heart goes where our money goes and not the other way around.  This means if we want to direct our heart to be more passionate about God, we need to give into the kingdom of God. There is something that happens in our heart with God when we make the decision to be a consistent giver/tither into his kingdom.  It’s flips a switch because it forces us to go all in.  

When I began to thinking about tithing when I was 21 it stressed me out.  I was a broke college student and it seemed like I didn’t have the extra to give, however,  when I made a conscious decision to tithe regularly, not only did God take care of me financially, but something happened in my heart that caused me to get more passionate about God.  I was all in because I was trusting Him with the thing that was most valuable to me. 

Being a consistent giver into the kingdom of God caused me to expand my vision from me to God and his kingdom and wanting to see it expand throughout the world.   My heart went with my finances and it still does.   As I close, I want to encourage everyone reading this to make a decision to put God first with your finances.  Choose to become a consistent tither/giver.  It will do something on the inside of you that is awesome.

I do want to make a couple of qualifications on giving.  First, we are no longer under the law anymore so you don’t have to tithe to not be cursed.  All the curse of sin for all time went on Jesus when he hung on the cross so you aren’t cursed if you don’t give.  Second, as the pastor of a church, I’m admittedly self conscious about telling people to tithe because I don’t want them thinking we are after their finances.  We aren’t trying to get anything from you, but rather get something to you and I know making the decision to be a consistent giver will cause the passion in your heart to increase for God.  To verify that, I give you this instruction:

Give where you are fed and where you are led.  This is what the Bible teaches.  

If you don’t feel led to give to Grace Life Church, but do know you should start to give regularly send us a message and I’ll be glad to recommend some awesome ministries you can give to.  I believe as you put God first place with your finances, your passion for Him will increase and your finances will too.  God is the biggest giver in the universe and no one can out-give Him so don’t be shocked when finances come to you in abundance!

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