Have you ever had times, where you’ve felt distant from the Lord, but then have had other times, were you feel very close to Him?
Have you always wanted to have that “fire,” that “passion” for Christ continually, but you find that it sometimes seems to just fade away?
Do you experience times, that you really love to read God’s Word, and have that enthusiasm to spend time with Him, then at other times, you struggle with the feeling of not wanting to do it, but deep inside you know you should?
I seem to struggle with all of these questions at times. I also battle with the “not having time” to read God’s Word, because I’m too busy, when I know I should be able to make time for it. I look at it like this: Be thankful that God gave us our time that we have, couldn’t we give a little of it back by spending it with Him?
I thought to myself, why am I having these problems? Why can’t I continually have that desire for the Lord…every day?
I thought about it, and I came across this book, “Growing Up Christian,” by Karl Graustein, which I read. Well, the chapter that stood out to me the most, was the one on spiritual disciplines.
He says,
Spiritual disciplines, such as reading and sudying the Bible, praying, worshiping, serving, fasting, and solitude, serve as spiritual exercises that strengthen our Christian walk. These private actions are spiritual push-ups that build the muscles of our faith.
When we practice the spiritual disciplines with the goal of growing in our passion for God, we will see our love for Him increase. When we faithfully practice them daily, we will see our walk with God strengthen more and more. When we regularly encounter the living God, he will be on our minds and guide us in each moment of our day. We will understand what it means to depend on the Holy Spirit and be determined to live in a way that pleases God.“
Sometimes the “passion” and “desire” to spend time with God doesn’t come automatically. We have to discipline our selves daily to be in God’s Word, pray, and take a little time each day to spend time with God. This is something I am really working on.
So many professing Christians are so spiritually undisciplined that they seem to have little fruit and power in their lives….Spiritually they are a mile wide and an inch deep. There are no deep, time-worn channels of communing discipline between them and God. They have dabbled in everything but disciplined themselves in nothing. -DONALD WHITNEY
If we are undisciplined, we will see little or no fruit and power in our lives. – Karl Graustein
1 Timothy 4:7 …train yourself to be godly.
Filed under: From my Bookshelf, Spiritual Disciplines, Struggles
