While your salvation is like a dazzling light that can never fade, your sanctification is on a dimmer switch controlled by you every day.

Suppose you got married and, following the wedding ceremony, you said to your new mate, “Hey, it’s been great being with you, I’ll check back now and then,” and then pranced off to a life of your own.

How long do you think that marriage will last? 

Sadly, many Christians unintentionally do the same thing to God. They “pray the prayer,” then go off and live a life of their own.

So, what’s missing? In a word, investment.

One and Done?

Is our relationship with God really a “one and done” proposition? If we come to faith in Christ, do we just resume our lives as though nothing happened?

Scripture likens our relationship with Christ to Bride and Bridegroom. This speaks of an intimate, committed, unbreakable bond, not a momentary disposable transaction. Treating any relationship carelessly is to court relational disaster. 

Christian, you are married to the Lover of your soul.  Forever.

Coasting Downhill

It is a proven fact that your spiritual health is directly related to the quality of your devotional life with God.

God longs for our company and is jealous of “the stuff” in our lives that squeeze Him out.

We manage to spend hours watching a football game on TV and can’t spare 15 minutes alone with God. What does that say about the condition of our hearts?  

So, what can we do about it? In her book, Lent, A Season of Returning, Christian author Ruth Haley Barton observes, “As we clear out the clutter of compulsive behaviors and emerge from the fog of inner distractions, we become more finely attuned to the presence of God and all the ways in which that Presence satisfies us utterly.”

The following practical thoughts and suggestions are intended to prevent deadly “soul drift” and keep our relationship with God fresh, vibrant and fulfilling.

Going deeper with God is not just for mystics and so-called spiritual giants, it’s for all of us to “seek Him with all of our hearts.”

Someone once said, “Coasting is a downhill process,” and nowhere is that truer than in matters of the soul.

Think about it, what could be more important than regularly connecting with the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe?

Getting Alone with God

As written in Luke 5:16, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

If anyone “had it together” it was Jesus. Yet even He felt the need to get alone with the Father and “charge His batteries” before facing the rigors of His daily ministry.

Jesus understood the dangers of the many soul-numbing distractions that came His way, and was proactive in making space for silence, alone with His Father.

When is the last time you heard from God? I mean clearly and unambiguously.

The missing link is intimacy, which flourishes in unhurried communion and withers in the face of hustle and bustle.

Children “got it,” when Jesus approached. He filled them with a sense of expectancy, as they hung upon His every word, knowing that something important was happening.

Somehow, we tend to lose that excitement as life “comes at us,” and the resulting narcotic-effect of losing our spiritual bearings leaves us exhausted and confused.

Few things are needed … indeed only one.

From Luke 10:38-42: “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!

“‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed — or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

In this well-known exchange between two people who truly loved Jesus, but who approached Him in very different ways, we learn the secret of life direct from the lips of the Master.

First, don’t live your life distracted by “things,” even good ones. And second, sit down regularly at the Lord’s feet and listen. That’s it folks!

As written in Luke 11:9-13, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened … how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

I’ve often feared that when I get to heaven, God will show me a warehouse of blessings that I could have had, if only I had asked.

I forge on without Him and then get “all weepy” when things don’t work out, all the while protesting, “Lord, don’t you care!”

Not enough time? Really?

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