Out With the Old, in With the New
20 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in The Process
Food guidelines recommend 2-4 servings of fruit per day. We are taught that fruits are rich in vitamins and nutrients and daily consumption of fruit is considered necessary for a good health. But, there is a difference between eating moldy (old) fruit and eating fresh fruit. Nobody I know likes rotten fruit. There is nothing appealing about it. It stinks and is slimy, and it attracts flies and other unsightly insects and mold. A couple of weeks ago as I sat in our Friday Nite Live service the words of the message hit home. It made me think about my current spiritual place. It was a call to stop and take a look at my spiritual growth. Am I personally overcoming sin in my life? Could I sense a forward motion in my Christian walk? Or did I seem to be stuck in a rut, stagnate, going nowhere. Was my fruit growing old and moldy? I was going to church, but I felt disconnected. I was saying the same prayers I always had…God thanks for this, God I need this, God help me in this area, God I need some money, Thanks God, amen. I said my prayers and attended bible classes and church like a good lil solider, but I found myself going through the motions. Eventually, I just stopped going, stopped reading, and stopped praying.
We all go through it, but have you ever stopped to think why that is? For my spiritual life to become stagnant meant that something had taken my attention away from the spiritual practices that made my spiritual life possible. Many times our lives become unfruitful because of stress, worries, wrong priorities, and the cares of this world. Through the message on that Friday night Bishop reminded me of things that keep my fruit fresh and when I continually miss one it begins to effect the others. Prayer, reading the Word, church fellowship and giving/tithing are essential to keeping my fruit fresh. “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” John 15:4.
You could say my spiritual rut came about by being lazy and complacent when it came to my spiritual life. Or I stopped growing because the routine of my life began to consume me. Maybe I fell into a rut because of a false sense of guilt and shame for not living up to the ideal I had of what it means to be a Christian. It could be one or all but I was trying to live off moldy rotten fruit and something had to change. To get out of a rut takes change, strength and perseverance. I was living in brokenness. I had to face facts and admit to God that no matter how long it takes, God, I am committed to the process. So, I had to make some changes, I needed to grow, I needed fresh fruit.
I heard a guy say once that he wished our spiritual lives could be in a step by step manual. That it would be nice if we had a manual that told us how often we need to go to church, how long we should pray, what we should read in the Bible and for how long, etc. But we all know that book doesn’t exist (and no, the Bible is not that book). Even if that book did exist, our faith would be more about following a schedule and routine than living out authentic faith. Since that handbook doesn’t exist, what do we do when we get into a spiritual rut? What do we do when our fruit seems a lil moldy?
As I listened to that Friday night message again today I realized this, we have to remember what it was that made you feel so alive when you first met Christ. That feeling came from relationship with Him. To get back to that feeling, you must get back to that relationship. Stay spiritually disciplined, but don’t make that just a practice, make it a daily passion. God wants us to be passionate in our pursuit of Him. He wants us to be hungry, thirsty and desperate for Him. Getting out of a rut and getting back on track is a continual process. God’s will is going to be done in your life, but He never said it was going to be easy. Each one of us will experience failure and setbacks in life. But, we shouldn’t allow our failures to become excuses for giving up on God’s plans or living on old fruit. So if your fruit bowl needs a pick me up, seek God’s forgiveness for your doubts or indifference or fears that keep you from following His plan for your life. Pray for God’s strength to help you overcome those hurdles so that you can continue your faith journey.
