The Faith Slump (Part 1 of 3)
They are the fragrant aroma of an offering, an acceptable sacrifice which God welcomes and in which He delights. And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:18-19 AMP
Sometimes in life you have to take a step back and retreat and go back to where you came from. What Jesus accomplished on the cross was the start of everything, it was our new beginning. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior our old man died, we became, a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We became reborn, a new creation in Christ Jesus.
It’s very easy to get caught up with things of this world and the circumstances that surrounds us even with the work we are doing for God and ministry, but we must snap back to the believers’ reality and fix our focus back on Jesus. We must come back to the cross.
During humanity’s fall that began with Adam and Eve, we became spiritually dead, losing our ability to have a relationship or fellowship with our Heavenly Father. An absolute holy God cannot have a relationship with anything impure. Since there is no remission of sin without blood being shed, this became our only path to restoration.
Throughout the Book of Leviticus in the Bible, God gave commands requiring yearly rituals of what needed to be done for temporary cleansing. The sacrificing of animals and their blood served a purpose but was ultimately insufficient. Why was all this necessary? Because life itself is in the blood. God established this system to demonstrate our profound need for a savior, showing the impossibility of salvation through our own efforts and works.
The law was perfect and showed what needed to be done to be cleansed from sin, but it was impossible for man to keep perfectly—this is precisely why the sacrificial system existed, providing temporary covering for sins committed against the Ten Commandments. The Old Testament shows us it was clear then that we needed a savior.
God made us to be His family. He made us to love us to have a relationship and fellowship with us. Jesus did what He did on the cross and tore the veil that separated us from having a relationship with our Heavenly Father. A holy God who was separated from His children because of sin, was now reunited, our relationship restored.
I recently fell in a faith slump and didn’t know how to get out. When I went to God with it, He used what the enemy meant for harm and turned it around for my good (Genesis 50:20) and for the good of everyone that reads this. It was out of this faith slump He revealed this revelation to me so that I am able to share this writing with you.
Why are so many Christians nowadays have lost their fire, are feeling defeated and have allowed themselves to go in a faith slump? Why is it that we are allowing the devil to attack us in this way, and we succumb, and he succeeds? It’s because we have lost our focus and took off our eyes off Jesus and His Word and made other things a priority over Him who should be our main.
Even if you don’t feel like you’re in a faith slump, we must always be growing in our relationship with Him daily, read on to see how you can continue to grow with God.
Why have we grown complacent about the extraordinary sacrifice Jesus made on the cross—the very act that opened the door to an opportunity of having a relationship with our Heavenly Father? This profound gift of reconciliation, purchased through Christ’s suffering, has somehow become familiar territory for many of us, dulling our appreciation of its true significance.
The cross stands as the pivotal moment in history where impassable separation was transformed into intimate communion, yet we often walk past this wonder without pause, treating as ordinary what should daily astonish our hearts.
What started my faith slump was that I was concentrating more on work and was lessening my quiet time with God. I wasn’t making room and giving Him the time to fellowship with me. That one-on-one quite time with God is so crucial I realize now. This time is what keeps my spirit man more alive and refreshed and so full of peace. I am better able to keep in His presence and handle things a lot more calmly and peacefully. I am not easily frustrated, aggravated or anxious or anything negative.
I am also more understanding, and through a deeper connection with Him, my heart now overflows with His abundant love and compassion. You really can’t pour from an empty cup and when you have your one-on-one quiet time with God where you praise, worship and talk to Him, read His word and just love on and commune with Him, your cup gets overflowed, and that overflow flows out in your atmosphere and to others around you and you are better to reflect Him.
When I am more filled with Him and His Spirit, I am also able to easily find strength during difficult seasons and stand against the enemy. Without that dedicated one-on-one time with God, I found myself feeling lost, defeated, doubtful, and less able to trust in His promises. My focus had drifted from His Word to the distractions and anxieties of this world.
Every relationship—whether new or established—requires investment of time to flourish. A relationship with God is no different. When He revealed to me the connection between what He accomplished on the cross and my present struggles, I was struck by how selfish and misguided I had been to neglect Him. After all, the very purpose of His sacrifice was to restore the relationship I had carelessly set aside.
Many times, we go to God with a to-do list babbling and repeating the words again and again, but Jesus says to not be like that for our Heavenly Father already knows exactly what you need and what would truly make us happy even before you ask Him (Matthew 6:7-8).
Sometimes all we need to do is just love on Him, instead of always asking for something, give to Him, give Him love and worship and praise Him and thank Him for who He is and all that He has done, is doing and will do, knowing that your worship and praise goes up like sweet incense pleasing to Him.
We should hold a dual awareness of Him: while embracing God as our loving Father, we must simultaneously honor His supreme divinity, maintaining appropriate awe and reverential fear of Him.
May we pray like David did, that our prayers be counted as incense before Him; the raising of our hands as the evening offering (Psalm 141:2). We see in this scripture the intertwining of prayer and worship with the lifting up of hands which is a common gesture in worship expressing praise, adoration and surrender to God. Ezekiel 20:41 shows us that with a pleasing aroma He will accept you, deliver you and manifest His holiness among you.
I am certainly not saying don’t go to God with your needs, of course you should because James 4:2-3 states, “Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it and even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”
He created us to love us and if we love Him, we will show Him love through the way we live our lives and how we represent Him, how we love others and through fellowship with Him.
Paul, in Philippians 4:14-20 shows us that the way we live our lives also give off a particular aroma before God. Living a good and righteous life before God is as a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. He then says that after this then God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Unrighteous living on the other hand, sends up a foul stench to His nostrils where there will be no supply.
The cornerstone of faith lies in cultivating a life that honors God—praising and worshipping Him for His past works, present actions, and future promises. When we approach Him with unselfish requests with thanksgiving, when we give freely, and offer ourselves as living sacrifices, He accepts and receives our worship like sweet incense.
In response, He manifests Himself in our lives and sends the divine fire that fulfills our every need and serves as a spiritual purifier, removing hidden impurities from our souls thereby cleansing all anger, bitterness, resentment, lust, ungodliness, unforgiveness and every unclean thing that is in our souls in order to restore us and prepare us for new and renewed life.
Stay tuned for our upcoming blog post, Part 2 of our Easter Trilogy Journey, “Rekindled at Calvary: How the Journey Back to the Cross Restored My Spiritual Fire” called, “Rekindling My Fire” to learn more about how crucial one-on-one time is with God, to get plugged in and remain in Him, our divine power source, so that we are able to bear much fruit. We’ll also examine how we can use discipline as a helpful tool to keep us plugged in and how spiritual laziness can undermine and is detrimental to our faith journey.
