Have you ever had those moments when you do not feel like praying, you’re not in the mood for going to church, reading your Bible or doing any spiritual activity?
This is called spiritual lethargy and you are not alone in suffering from spiritual lethargy.
Spiritual lethargy is the story and experience of many people at one time or the other in their Christian walk with God. That’s because we live in a world where we have an enemy whose key purpose and only focus is to disconnect you from God. He has no other purpose or desire other than to make sure you lose fellowship with God. Thus, he applies several strategies to achieve his aims and one of the strategies he applies is to steal away your desire for spiritual things.
When you have spiritual lethargy, you are spiritually sick and you need help urgently or that spiritual sickness will lead you to spiritual death eventually; but the question is, when this feeling comes up what do you do? How do you cope with it?
The two most common responses or reaction to spiritual lethargy (feeling cold and lazy towards spiritual things), are:
(1) Continue outwardly as though all is well (Rev. 3: 1-2)
(2) Stay away from God or any spiritual activity.
Both coping strategies are destructive because none of these is the recommended strategy by God.
If making heaven one day is important to you, then you have to follow God’s cure for spiritual lethargy. These are very effective keys for reactivating your fellowship and passion for God.
(1) BE HONEST WITH GOD: Tell God exactly how you feel. Learn to be honest with God. Before you even say it, God already knows so no need trying to impress Him. Tell Him that all is not well with you (Psalm 139: 1-4).
(2) ASK FOR DIVINE HELP: Cry out to Him and ask for help. Ask Him to visit you again, ask Him to restore you again (Matt. 5:6; Psalm. 51: 1-19).
(3) TELL SOMEONE ELSE ABOUT IT: Find someone spiritually mature who has spiritual oversight over you and tell the person about it. There is something about sin that depreciates when it is no more a secret. The moment you tell someone about it, you become accountable to someone who will help you (Ecclesiastics 4:11, James 5:16).
(4) CREATE AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR RE-CONNECTING TO GOD: Create an atmosphere that inspires you to reach out for God. You can do that by listening to a worship song, or maybe a message that has inspired and revived you in the past.
(5) REMEMBER: Cast your mind back to the goodness of God and the beauty of your relationship with Him. Remember the victories you in partnership with God have won. This will spark off a deep desire for more of GOD (Revelation. 2:5).
Remember it is dangerous to remain in the state of spiritual lethargy because in that state, you are extremely vulnerable to sin and Satan. Satan will use the opportunity to wreck havoc in your life. So get up now and find your way back to the loving and waiting arms of Jesus.
BIBLE REFERENCE: 2 Samuel: 11: 1-2
source: www.mspdevotion.com
