I was sick sometime ago, nothing serious, it was only a flu. So I took a rest for about one week.. staying in bed, watching TV.. Then my relationship with God was graudually getting further apart..it seems to be so far away now. im struggling in every problem that i encounter. Somehow im not motivated enough to sit down and pray, have deep conversation with God. What shall I do to renew the relationship with God? :-o
In How to Pray 1, Ernest O'Neill suggested we do what he did which was, tell God that you will meet with him every day at such and such time, then do just that and set a timer for five minutes. It is a beginning, that leads to more and more time.http://worldinvisible.com/avlib/index_prayer.htmDavid Wilkerson and others have used this method as well to help fallen Pastors get back to God. Some good songs to learn are Take Time to be Holy, and Sweet Hour of Prayer
Hi jen_special,I can certainly relate because i've been their. As i read your post i was reminded of the phrase i'm sure we've all seen and heard of before."A week without prayer makes one weak"I can only speak for myself in that i would say to you, get back into prayer and the Word. For some reason when i've been away for whatever reason from God. I find it much harder just to get back into praying and in the Word. And again i'm reminded what momma use to say to me in this particular area. I'd say momma God seems a million miles away and she would reply with. If God seems so far away, then "who moved"? For me it seems very difficult to get back but remember it's your flesh that wants to keep you away but your spirit wants to get back. Your spirit hasn't been fed and that's why you feel weak and discouraged and perhaps dismayed. Be engouraged that the Lord is still their waiting on you to come to him. We all get sick and for different reason's miss out on our prayer life's but, He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. :-D
Yes, I totally agree, download and listen to the messages on prayer by Earnest O'Neil, they are awesome.http://worldinvisible.com/avlib/index_prayer.htmI recently listened to them and found them to be very helpful to my relationship with the Lord. They are the clearest, more practical teaching on prayer that I have ever heard.
Dear jen_special,Isn't this the one area that the Devils loves to attack. In order to answer your question and to remind myself, Lets look at Noah's secret: In Gen 6, the Bible says that he was a righteous man, he was perfect or blameless in his generation and he walked with God. Nothing in the Bible is by accident. Noah's secret has an order. It says: i) He was righteous, in other words he was right with God, ii) He was right with man, andiii) Then only he walked with God.How often I find myself trying to have a relatioship with the Lord, with conscious sin in my life. Yes, not necessarily major gross sins, but small things that stand between me and my precious Lord. The Bible even says that it is the small foxes that destroy the vinyard. These foxes are sins, words, attitudes and thoughts that are not cleansed by the blood of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And so my life, which is the vinyard of the Lord, where He comes to eat and receive fruit, has nothing for Him to enjoy.Sin seperates us from God! And 1 John 3:8 says He came to destroy the works of the devil. Therefore, start at the beginning. God is there where you left Him. Search your heart, confess your sin. Share the burden with another Mature believer if need be. Make right with others if need be. And you will walk with Him again.May Christ reveal Himself to us, day-by-day.In His love,Gery
Gery wrote:How often I find myself trying to have a relatioship with the Lord, with conscious sin in my life. Yes, not necessarily major gross sins, but small things that stand between me and my precious Lord. The Bible even says that it is the small foxes that destroy the vinyard. These foxes are sins, words, attitudes and thoughts that are not cleansed by the blood of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And so my life, which is the vinyard of the Lord, where He comes to eat and receive fruit, has nothing for Him to enjoy. That lifted me up. Thanks. Blessings
I think most of these great preachers who we are blessed to listen to thanks to this site would say something to the effect of "stop listening to these sermons and go pray and get in the word" :) I have been in the desert a couple times. Once it was due to disobedience. Second time was just a "dark night of the soul" experience. First - through prayer and Bible reading I ask God to reveal to you if you were disobedient in any area. If you are shown where you have been disobedient, then you need to become obedient. Remember that delayed obedience is still disobedience. Second, as bad as it sounds...the desert is not necessarily a bad place. It can just make you really thirst where like in a physical desert, you start to crave water...living water. Seriously...like I said..tons of christians have been through the "funks". We are called to continue our pursuit of God during these dry times...Pray and get in the word friend.
As your "Sister" in the Lord, this is what the LORD would have me to say to you.Begin to PROCLAIM his word, it's in you. Begin to lift him up on high, exault his HOLY NAME, for he is HOLY. He promised that if you would just open your mouth he would fill it.As you begin to proclaim, declare, and degree his word there is an activation process that will be begin to take place within your spirit.God's word is awesome, and it is TRUE.David found himself manytimes in this familiar place, and what did he do? He would WORSHIP :-)The Joy of the LORD is your strength!God Bless You
Jen,You got good advice on this thread. Mind if I make one observation? Did you consider how easy it was for you to be mesmerized for one week by tv programming, but not be excited about God while being entertained by the world? Are they not worlds apart? Both at war with each other? Something to consider, IMHO.ginnyrose
I have sort of the opposite problem but with the same result. I have a massive problem finding time to maintain my relationship with God. Currently, I set aside 20 mins or so before I go to bed to have a little read and pray. I find that sometimes there is pressure say to attend meetings at church and I feel guilty if I don't and there are currently 4 meetings a week at ours. I don't get to them all as I just find that every single night of my week is jam packed and I have been really stressed lately to try to decide how I can make myself less busy but all the things I do seem unavoidable (except music things which are usually once a week but I don't want to cut out this really). I have had to organise some things on meeting nights as there is no time otherwise. I worked out that I probably spend a night in maybe once every month or two and that is definately no exaggeration. Does anyone else have this problem of trying to cram so many things into their week that they struggle for any quiet time? Sometimes if friends want to see me they have to book me like 2 weeks in advance and I am really struggling with all this at the moment. I feel guilty that I haven't got enough time for everyone and I try to spread myself thinly around and then get really stressed that I can't be devoted to any one thing!P.S. I am not big headed in thinking I am very popular or anything :-) it's just that I like to try to maintain friendships with people as I don't want to lose them and think that it's important.Liz
Hi Liz,Couldn't help but notice, it looks like your answer may be contained within your response. Pulling back could be the most helpful thing you can do. be devoted to any one thing!Luk 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
The title of this thread is an oxymoron. And therefore, I think a very appropriate one for this issue. Definition of oxymoron: A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist. Rest is the absence of effort. It is a peaceful state of union with God. (see Hebrews) So NOT resting, ie: trying hard to squeeze in a devotional time, or church meeting or such, we find ourselves getting exhausted. We also end up carrying a lot of guilt – cause we just can’t measure up. Carrying a load of guilt is the opposite of rest – resting in the Lord which is a state of freedom from any condemnation. Christ came to give us rest – figuratively described as the Sabbath rest. For years I could not understand that because I was trying to live my life in my own strength. I really wasn't "devoted to one thing." I share more in an e-book, including how my illness, Chronic Fagigue Syndrone helped me understand God’s rest: Entering God's Rest
We also end up carrying a lot of guilt – cause we just can’t measure up. Carrying a load of guilt is the opposite of rest – resting in the Lord which is a state of freedom from any condemnationYes that is what happenes to me, I end up either feeling guilty that I am letting people down by not having enough time for them and it can get like a really heavy burden and sometimes I wake up early worrying about how I am going to fit everything in. I also get it sometimes when I can't get to a meeting, especially if I am doing something 'un-church' because of it. It is all really unecessary and silly as I realise that this is not what God intends.I share more in an e-book, including how my illness, Chronic Fagigue Syndrone helped me understand God’s rest:I will read this as it looks really helpful.Liz :-)
I have sort of the opposite problem but with the same result. I have a massive problem finding time to maintain my relationship with God. Currently, I set aside 20 mins or so before I go to bed to have a little read and pray. Let me ask you this? What is your time filled with that is making you too busy to spend a daily quiet time with Jesus? I ask this because I found myself in the same boat. I am married with three little girls..ages 6, 2 and 9 months. My evenings were spent watching television and playing on the internet. Quiet times which were once joyful became dull and tedious. And since that is not the way I want to live ,I got radical. Christ was obviously no longer on His throne in my life. I put other things there...really, I put myself on that throne. So to take myself off that throne I removed the things from my life that took my focus off of Him...and off of my family. So...I have no more home access to the internet (which is also good because I used to have a porn addiction). My wife and I limited out television to one night a week. However, I will be cutting cable completely off because we find outselves slipping too much. Plus, with my flesh still easy prey to fleshly temptations its best to remove it from my house. You know....pluck an eye, cut off your hand. Radical obedience....the price of obedience is high...the price for disobedience is higher...I am not telling you to cancel your internet...or your television. I am suggesting that you take a look at your life and discover the things that eat up your time and prevent you from growing in intimacy with Christ. One more thing. Andrew Murray said in one of his books that since God is not confined by time then we shouldn't try to confine him to just a quiet time. Quiet times are great. I love them and encourage them...but we should make an effort to not box God into a certain time. With effort, discipline, practice...and the Holy Spirit we have a quiet time all day long. Pray without ceasing...Get radical. You won't miss the things you cut out if you are filling them with Jesus. I promise you that from the bottom of my heart.
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