OPINION (IBelieve) – It really began quite innocently. She was dreadfully sick that Sunday, so she didn’t go to church. He had a paper to complete that Tuesday, so he didn’t make it to Bible study. She accidentally overslept and missed her weekly prayer call with her accountability partner. Before they knew it, a month had gone by. Neither had been to church, their time in God’s word had evaporated and their prayer lives had whittled down to “So help me God!” Does any of their story sound familiar? Have you ever been totally on fire for God, hot but then you’re not?
How do we go from a burning desire to go deeper to a lukewarm living out of our faith? I call it the slow drift and we’re all susceptible to being caught up in its current. Yesterday it might have seemed like we were lovingly beholding the face of Jesus, then BAM, we’re out in the middle of the ocean, bobbing further and further away from our intimacy with God.
Sometimes major life events cause our relationship with God to come to a screeching halt. A health crisis, the birth or death of an immediate family member, feeling like God didn’t answer your prayer—these are some of the big things that can derail your intimacy with God. But from what I‘ve seen most often, it’s not the cataclysmic events that pull our attention away, but more so the small foxes (Song of Solomon 2:15) and slow drifts. READ MORE
