spring onion

Is your faith in God fervent? Have you been growing in your spiritual walk with God? Has your life been bearing the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 6:22-23)? Keep in mind that what doesn’t grow or bear fruit is either dead or made of plastic. And in my opinion, a barren ‘plastic’ life is mere existence.

The cry of our hearts should be: “God, let me live the abundant life that You’ve promised to those who believe.” Sure there are pitfalls along the way as we travel through life. Are we going to allow the fear and uncertainties curtail our passion for God? Why then do Christians grow cold in their faith and fall away from God and even backslide?

If a new believer falls away from God because he lacks understanding of the true concept of a living God who forgives his sin, who requires that he lives by faith and wants to have a personal relationship with him; it is somehow understandable.

But for a more ‘mature’ Christian to fall away and grow cold and eventually leave church is sad. The longer we are in church, the more sermons we would have heard that would help us grow in the knowledge of God. We would have read the Bible enough times to make our faith grow stronger. We would have had more prayers answered that would cause us to believe in God’s faithfulness. The longer we stay in church we should be more faithful, fruitful, on fire and more zealous in serving and loving God.

The reason why many Christians fall away is because they have stopped ‘feeding’ themselves and they eventually ‘die.’ “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The currents of life sweep them away that they forget that: “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17). They may have allowed their love for God to grow cold and spiritual death slowly creeps in.

Recently, I was listening to songs by Mercy Me and I couldn’t help but fall in love with God again. With song lyrics that go: “As long as my heart is beating, where You lead me I will follow, where you lead me I give my life away…” It stirs the heart just listening to the passion in the voice of the singer.

I remember as a young Christian when I saw people in church raising their hands in praise and worship and telling God “I love You, Lord,” I just didn’t get it. How can someone love God? You know who God is? Isn’t He some big mighty power to be approached in fear and trembling? For me back then, the feeling of love for God was just not there. But the more I went to church, the more I learned that faith must supersede our feelings.

Feelings are so fleeting, it changes like the tides, and therefore it can’t be relied upon to get us through our Christian life. We need something more. We need faith. More than just saving faith that draws us to believe Christ’s death on the cross saves us from our sins, we need a confident assurance that God is with us.

For a long time in my Christian walk I felt like a child looking through a window display of a toy store, always looking in and never getting to play with the toys. I had my fair share of days when I had no strength in me to go on. Trials and testing come like rolling waves not giving me enough time for a breather. It would have been easier to let go and drift away. But no, I couldn’t just go down without a fight. I had to stand my ground and fight for my faith.

The Bible says: “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil is as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

The devil will try to wear us down by sending us tons of troubles until we start questioning God’s very existence and love for us or he may lead us into believing that a life of comfort and success is all we need and when we have it, that will eliminate our need and dependence on God. The devil wants to rob us of our faith because he knows full well that a Christian without faith is as good as dead. Our service and faithfulness is for nought if the Christian’s faith is undermined. We need to be spiritually alive, alert and on the look out!

Antoinette

10th June 2007