When you’re an old Christian, at one point in time, everything becomes routinary. And when I say “old”, I don’t mean by age, but by the duration you have been a Christian.
When you’re an old Christian, there will be times when you would go to church, read your Bible, pray, or worship just because you’re used to it. At times like this, you might find that you’re merely dragging yourself just to move along your Christian walk, not really going anywhere. At times like this, it might feel like it’s not really in you anymore to do your spiritual discipline and resort to mere forcing yourself to be motivated through discipline.
Dear old Christian, I want you to know that the Christian life takes more than just discipline to sustain. It’s not about merely doing what we ought to do or what we think we should do. But, to have the heart behind it– the willingness to love God and to follow Him and obey Him afterwards. To fall in love with God first everything will follow.
Dear old Christian, we have to pique into what’s natural within us and let the Lord mold us in the process of loving Him more and more everyday. But first, we have to be willing. Be willing to develop a heart for God first– a heart that’s after God first.
John 5:39-40 (ESV)
“39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life”
Dear old Christian, the Christian life takes more than just discipline. Although discipline helps to prune us, it can never sustain the authentic Christian life. For a life laid down before God starts with a heart that loves Him.
What operating out of discipline or mere obligation does is it just develops resentment towards God because we do what we don’t want to do. We feel forced, instead of just nurturing our relationship with God and do ministry out of overflow.
This is not to say that we get to love God perfectly at the onset. For we still operate with fragility. What I’m saying is we ought to not idolize discipline as the be-all and end-all. For God sees our hearts. Are you doing your quiet time just because of habit? Are you attending church because it’s the right thing to do? Or are you doing it out of love for God? Which is it?
Revelation 2:4 (ESV)
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
It’s all about love at the end of the day. We must remember that things done without love do not last and that the Christian life is about our love relationship with the Lord first.
When you’re an old Christian, at one point in time, everything becomes routinary. But, if you’re a true one, you’ll find it in you why you do the things you do for God– to go back to your first Love. And to remember the love you had at first with Him.