As we look towards a new year, it is a good time to take stock and to reflect on how our Christian life is going. Sometimes when people are trying to lose weight they can reach a plateau and they end up staying there and never manage to lose that last bit. The thing that usually happens then is they go backwards and can end up putting on the weight they’ve lost and sometimes more. A similar thing can happen in our Christian life.
If we do not keep striving to grow and mature in our Christian life, we can plateau. Then next you know we’re finding we are spending less time with God, less time reading His Word, less time with God’s people. What happens then is we start to feel guilty. So we pull further away from God. Instead of confessing it and moving on to get past the plateau, people often go the other way. They choose to spend even less time in prayer, reading God’s Word and maintaining that relationship with God.
What happens to any relationship when it is not worked on and maintained? It can shrivel up and die.
As I write these words I know I am writing them to myself as much as anybody out there. Lately it has just been too easy to spend time doing other things instead of in prayer, in bible reading etc. So my new year’s resolution, in a nutshell, is to make sure I keep growing in my Christian life and often that means getting back to the basics like prayer and bible study and meeting with other Christens.
It’s just too easy, especially during holiday times when so many of our normal routines are unsettled or put on hold, to think we can take a holiday from our Christian life and put it on hold. It’s not a good idea and can be dangerous to our spiritual health. If you’ve been tempted to do that, can I challenge you as I challenge myself to get back to a regular committed time with the Lord each day?
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