A youth in my church once asked me "I used to be so faithful to
God in the past. But recently, I am not as faithful...how?"
I guess many people had this question on their minds at some time
or another. I had many youths asking me that many times. But my
question to them is "How do you define
faithful?", "How do you quantify faithfulness? Does it have a meter
or ranking?"
My answers to the last 2 questions are "NO". FAITHFULNESS is something not physical.
You should never think of someone as faithful just because he/she
is doing many things for God. We should never translate what a
person says, does and appears to be into FAITHFULNESS.
So what then is FAITHFULNESS? Remember DAVID? In the bible, he was
described as a "MAN AFTER GOD's
HEART". That despite him committing ADULTERY. You see, a
person who had sin or sins against God is NORMAL, like DAVID. What
is important is that after sinning, DAVID felt remorse, he wanted
to repent. But instead of trying to do things like reading the
srciptures more to show he has repented, he instead turned to God
and cried and prayed (see some of the PSALMS David wrote, they are
full of repentance.).
David was a man after God's heart because he seek after God. He did
not focus on what he had done in the past for God, but his focus is
on GOD!
So my sister and all who are discouraged because you think you are
not as faithful as in the past, DO NOT keep thinking thoughts like
"I used to do 1 hour quiet time, now only
30 minutes...i must strive to do 1 hour again." or "I use to be so
active in the youth service...now i never go...i must go back and
serve again.". Nothing wrong with these statements except if
you put your focus on these "OBJECTIVES", you will never be like
DAVID, a person after God's heart.
Focus on God. I do not know whether you understand my words, i do
not write as well as i talk but I hope it encourages some of you
all. I shall summarize my points.
1. Focus on God.
2. Aim to know God.
3. Read your bible not to gauge you are faithful but to know God's
heart.
4. Pray that God will help you to seek Him first.
5. Dun be discouraged if your quiet time or service or passion
seems to be dying out. Be like David, even in sin, he looks to God
and see what God has done to him. God restored him.
6. It takes time. God is always there. He never moved. Its you who
moved so, take your time, inch back to Him, you will find
Him.
7. Remember, God loves the server more than the service. Dun worry
about not reading the bible as long as last time. Dun worry about
not serving in church. Dun worry about not having the passion for
the church. Just CONCENTRATE on knowing GOD. How do we KNOW GOD?
Read the bible (not quantity but quality), Look at the NATURE!
Pray, GOD SPEAKS! Interact with US!!!! The issue is in quality not
quantity. When you pray, just tell God your raw feelings. Sometimes
when I pray and I am angry with God, I TELL HIM so and God came and
healed me....He just wants you to talk heart to heart to Him.
Alright....I guess i talked alot, I really hope God can bring those
who are down to Him again. Draw near to Him and He will draw near
to you. Forget all about the DOING DOING DOING. Its all about
LOVING AND KNOWING. When you truly know and love God, the doing
will come naturally.
God bless.
