Never Give Up!

Human beings’ most significant quest beyond trusting in Christ Jesus is searching for a soul mate who will be a best friend for life. Just what is a soul mate? A soul mate is someone you can trust completely with your vulnerabilities, joys, and sorrows and who feels the same toward you.

So many couples submit to the temptation to settle for less than God intended out of fear there might never be another opportunity. Temptation tests your endurance, strength, and faith as well as your willingness to settle for less than God’s best. This is a major cause of regret and grief.

To give in is an easy option when temptation appears overwhelming. Yet you do not have to face temptation’s power in your own strength. God’s gift of faith is your ally in the battle against temptation’s power and allurement. His wisdom also exposes every deception hurled toward you. Never give up in your search for what God has prepared for you. Then you will rejoice and be glad.  

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If we are living now by the Holy Spirit’s power, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

~Galatians 5:25 The Living Bible

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Positives and Negatives of Passion

In today’s culture, the word passion is loaded with sexual implications. Yet Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross are specifically designated as “the passion of Christ.” His determination to complete all God entrusted to him was his all-consuming passion. Passion motivates people to excel.

Without question, passion has the power to persuade a person to strive either for righteousness and productivity or for evil. It's possible to have more than one passion, each simultaneously striving for dominance. Alexander Pope, the English poet, describes a dominant "ruling passion that has the potential to conquer reason and logic." 

          Alexander Pope knew if passion overrules self-control, godly values can be overruled. The Apostle Paul offers encouragement: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful nature with its passions and desires by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit.” God gives hope and power to those who maintain this objective.  

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I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do, and then you won’t always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants you to.  

~Galatians 5:16 The Living Bible

Consider yourself dead to worldly contacts: have nothing to do with sexual immorality, dirty-mindedness, uncontrolled passion, evil desire, and the lust for other people’s goods, which amounts to idolatry.

~Colossians 3:5 Phillips – The New Testament in Modern English