Got Fruit ?

Over the past few months, I’ve made a few references to feeling a spiritual disconnect. Not that I felt or even believed that God had abandoned me… I know that to not be the case at all. Whatever is going on, is a result of me somehow falling out of sync with God and His plans over my life.

This evening after tonight’s discipleship training course, I headed back to my lair to get in some time with my devotional. As I prepared to get into the devotional, I took time to pray first for God’s Holy Spirit to reveal to me not only what tonight’s devotional covered but also to open my heart and eyes to what I had done or not done to get myself into this spiritual rut.

My God is awesome! The answer was waiting for me in today’s devotional, coming from the Book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 6:12 (KJV)
That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (NIV)
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Rick Renner, author of Sparkling Gems tells us that the word “slothful” comes from the Greek word NORTHROS which describes something that is:

• dull
• monotonous or unexciting
• something that is slow and sluggish
• something that has lost it’s speed or momentum

After having read the author’s personal experience of how slothfulness had crept into his relationship with Christ, I too could see in my own relationship, how slothfulness had affected my walk. Sure I had the setback with the injury late last year, but that in itself did not prevent me from doing many of the things that the Lord had put on my heart to do and to be active in. Besides, I’m back to normal now, so that “excuse” isn’t even valid.

Up until the injury, and even after regaining some mobility by way of the walking boot that I was in, I was visiting old neighbors or stopping by on Saturdays to share the Word with a friend. I had people close to me that I needed to be witnessing to about the true God Almighty, plus activities at church that needed to be aggressively addressed. All of these things, I had let fall to the wayside. Indirectly, I suppose I allowed the injury to distract me from the things that I should have been doing.

To borrow Renner’s analogy, the zeal I had shifted from High gear to neutral. I’ve been coasting along. Glory and thanks be to God though, that His Holy Spirit is alive in me and has been constantly prodding me with the desire to have revealed, what it is that has changed? I knew it wasn’t God. It had to be me! Somehow, somewhere over the past few months, the need to do a personal assessment of myself in relation to God and His plan, got overlooked.

If you find yourself in a spiritual rut, prayer and asking yourself these questions may reveal to you too, what you need to address in order to get back on track with God and His plan for your life.

• Have you lost your passion?
• Has your spiritual momentum waned?
• Is your desire less than it was months ago?
• Have you followed through with things that God has put on your heart to do?
• Are you holding back from serving God fully?
• Do you have unfinished business?
• Are your priorities in order? (God, others then yourself)

In closing, again I am reminded of Jeremiah 29:11-13. Though I may not know the full details of His glorious plan for my life, there is assurance that it is a perfect plane and it is for my benefit.

Jeremiah 29:11-13
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Grace and peace be with you.