(Post by: Michelle Hobbs)
I would like to ask you a question. Please, take some time to really think about it and answer honestly.
Are these the most spiritually fulfilling days of your life?
My family and I are at a ministry conference this week. The speaker yesterday posed that question to us, and I have been mulling it over ever since.
What is my answer? Well, in some ways, “Yes”. Overall, probably, “No”.
When I think of the most spiritually fulfilling days in my life, I think of the first few years after I got saved. Scott and I were in our late twenties when we got saved, and we were on fire for Jesus immediately. We attended every class we could. We studied the Bible every day. The Word was opened up to us in a powerful way. It was exciting and exhilarating!
I remember looking around at other church attendees, people in our Sunday School classes and worship services, and not seeing the joy and excitement I was feeling at the time. I found it odd. I knew they loved the Lord, but the pressing desire to worship, study, and learn new things was not evident.
They were comfortable. If I am honest, I have now grown comfortable, as well.
Comfortable is a dangerous place to be in the Gospel, friends. Revelation 3: 14-17 says, “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”
Those of us who have been saved and/or have gone to church and have done “Christian stuff” for several years have a tendency to simply get comfortable. We lose our zeal for the Gospel. We lose our passion for learning new things; our deep desire to know the Lord more each day. We lose sight of the lost and walk around defeated, thinking there is nothing we can do about the state of the world around us.
We are content to remain in a state where we feel no guilt, but there is also no blessing.
That, dear Christian, is exactly where the enemy wants you; and precisely where the Lord has warned us not to be. From the verses I previously cited, it sounds like the Lord flat out despises that state. When we are comfortable, we are lukewarm and completely ineffective.
The speaker from our conference yesterday, shared a story from a time when he was in seminary, and he went to listen to an old, seasoned preacher. After the sermon, he told one of his professors that he would give anything to be as spiritual as the preacher they had just listened to. The wise professor replied, “No you wouldn’t. You don’t want to get up at 5:00 am to pray for two hours like he does. You don’t want to spend three hours a day studying Scripture. You don’t want to spend countless hours serving the hurting people in your community. You don’t want to pray with the store clerk or share the Gospel with a stranger or a fellow classmate.”
That wise professor said, “Each of us are as spiritual as we really want to be.”
Ouch! That is a hard truth, isn’t it?
You see, when I look back at the days that I would say are the most spiritually fulfilling days of my life, they are the days when I was willing to put a lot of effort into my relationship with Christ. I was praying, studying, and serving every day. They were the days when I learned how to pray with people and share the Gospel with them, and I actually went out and did that on a regular basis. They were the days when I saw the truth being ignored and injustice being accepted, and I spoke out, in love, against it.
My most spiritually fulfilling days, depend on me, and me alone. No one else can lead me into them. I cannot ride into them on someone else’s coattail.
We are each as spiritual as we really want to be.
Friend, do not allow yourself to get comfortable; to become lukewarm in your faith. Can you imagine how wonderful life would be if we would strive to make each day the most spiritually fulfilling day we have ever had?
It’s not too late for you and me to do just that!
I was so encouraged at the end of our service yesterday. After the speaker shared this message, he gave an altar call for those who wanted to commit to making the days ahead more spiritually fulfilling than the days behind. An elderly woman, with a full head of white hair and walker to steady her gait, was the first one to make her way down to the altar. It was no easy task for her, but she obviously recognized that there was great reward in making this commitment.
Oh Lord, let that be me when I am old and gray!
SO WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?
= Are these the most spiritually fulfilling days of your life?
= What are you going to do differently?
The Few 