Today, I mailed a package to Australia and realized as I left the post office (only 5 minutes later) that I have become an old pro at international shipments for my business. What used to be a nerve-wracking hour-long business went over so smoothly I hardly felt it.
As I drove home, I reflected on how the excitement and newness fades from most things with repetition. For the most part this is a good thing (who needs to stress out over the same situation over and over again?), but when it comes to our personal relationship with Christ, it is a dangerous situation to find ourselves in.
The Bible cautions us to keep our relationship with the Lord new and fresh. It is not enough to hate evil and try to live righteously, although these things are commended by God. We must cling to our "first love," that is, that kind of faith that is full of passion and energy, like a new romance (Revelation 2:2-6). We cannot treat our relationship with God like an old habit or a well-worn shoe. If we let our feelings grow stale, we could eventually lose them. We especially run the risk of forgetting God when other things come along that seem more "exciting." At some juncture, we could find ourselves disillusioned and lost, wondering how we got here.
The recommended cure for a weakening faith is to seek the personal presence of the Lord. This comes through prayer and revisiting the words of the Bible. Unlike other things that seem to fade with repetition, the Bible works to strengthen our love for the Lord, like a deep heart-to-heart conversation. The more we read, the deeper the relationship becomes, as we come to understand how much God loves us and how far ahead He planned for us.
The Bible was written thousands of years ago, but it addresses the concerns of today, and each time we look into it, we see a fitting answer. I speak from experience! The Bible reveals unchanging truth, but that truth is living and dynamic, like our relationship with the Source of that truth should also aspire to be.
This brings me back to my first point, about how we should have a relationship with God that is not unlike a new love, a new romance. A friend on Facebook reminded me the other day of the verse, "An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips," (Proverbs 24: 26 NIV 2011). The Bible is full of honest answers about us, about our questions, and about what God thinks on every issue. I can't think of a clearer revelation of God's feelings for us, and if we approach Him with the same honesty, I can't think of a clearer way to convey our feelings to Him in turn. He wants the truth from us, and we need the truth from Him, just as even old human relationships benefit from the special intimacy of a kiss. It's no coincidence that God made human relationships to reflect deeper truths about Himself.
If your relationship with God seems to be suffering from a lack of freshness and strength, I encourage you today to seek out those honest answers from the Lord. Spend some time reading and contemplating the Bible, and you will forget all the interceding things that could draw you away into loneliness and ruin.
Until next time, this is me reminding you to stay savvy and seek out that first love you have had with the Lord!
As I drove home, I reflected on how the excitement and newness fades from most things with repetition. For the most part this is a good thing (who needs to stress out over the same situation over and over again?), but when it comes to our personal relationship with Christ, it is a dangerous situation to find ourselves in.
The Bible cautions us to keep our relationship with the Lord new and fresh. It is not enough to hate evil and try to live righteously, although these things are commended by God. We must cling to our "first love," that is, that kind of faith that is full of passion and energy, like a new romance (Revelation 2:2-6). We cannot treat our relationship with God like an old habit or a well-worn shoe. If we let our feelings grow stale, we could eventually lose them. We especially run the risk of forgetting God when other things come along that seem more "exciting." At some juncture, we could find ourselves disillusioned and lost, wondering how we got here.
The recommended cure for a weakening faith is to seek the personal presence of the Lord. This comes through prayer and revisiting the words of the Bible. Unlike other things that seem to fade with repetition, the Bible works to strengthen our love for the Lord, like a deep heart-to-heart conversation. The more we read, the deeper the relationship becomes, as we come to understand how much God loves us and how far ahead He planned for us.
The Bible was written thousands of years ago, but it addresses the concerns of today, and each time we look into it, we see a fitting answer. I speak from experience! The Bible reveals unchanging truth, but that truth is living and dynamic, like our relationship with the Source of that truth should also aspire to be.
This brings me back to my first point, about how we should have a relationship with God that is not unlike a new love, a new romance. A friend on Facebook reminded me the other day of the verse, "An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips," (Proverbs 24: 26 NIV 2011). The Bible is full of honest answers about us, about our questions, and about what God thinks on every issue. I can't think of a clearer revelation of God's feelings for us, and if we approach Him with the same honesty, I can't think of a clearer way to convey our feelings to Him in turn. He wants the truth from us, and we need the truth from Him, just as even old human relationships benefit from the special intimacy of a kiss. It's no coincidence that God made human relationships to reflect deeper truths about Himself.
If your relationship with God seems to be suffering from a lack of freshness and strength, I encourage you today to seek out those honest answers from the Lord. Spend some time reading and contemplating the Bible, and you will forget all the interceding things that could draw you away into loneliness and ruin.
Until next time, this is me reminding you to stay savvy and seek out that first love you have had with the Lord!
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