If you’re anything like me, and most people for that matter, you have experienced highs and lows in your spiritual journey. You have had times of rock solid faith, direction, and confidence in your journey as a follower of Christ. And you have also had times of feeling distant, disconnected, and doubtful.
We always hope that those times of spiritual strength last forever. We feel great and we can feel God working in and around us, seemingly everywhere all at once (which we all know he can and does do). But then those spiritual dry seasons start to creep back in and you find yourself living in a deep fog that you wonder if you will ever get out of.
You find yourself reading scripture and praying less, almost without even noticing, and there is a part of you that just really doesn't want to put in the effort to get back on track. You start to care less and put your spiritual life on autopilot without a clear plan on when to pick back up the controls.
Bare with me as I compare this to my physical fitness journey as it is the most relatable example I can give. I know that there have been seasons where my approach to physical fitness has lacked ambition, direction, and focus. The longer I spend away from exercising regularly the worse I feel both physically and mentally. It is always harder to get started again because I know that I will be way behind where I left off and things that weren't so hard before will be almost impossible when I go back.
The longer I spend away the easier it is to stay away. Start making connections now if you haven’t already. I’ll say it again, the longer I spend away the easier it is to stay away. The less discipline I have to maintain a healthy exercise routine the more displaced my relationship with exercise becomes. And as a result I have less energy, I’m moody (just ask my wife), I feel weak physically and mentally, I start to get down on myself, I lack confidence, and I become discouraged.
The same can be true for your spiritual health. The longer we stay away from “training” our faith and working on our relationship with God the easier it can be to stay away. Scripture tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:19:
"Do not quench the spirit."
This literally means, if you are prompted in the spirit in some way, don’t ignore that. Because as a result it will get easier and easier to ignore the spirit to the point where you will say things like, “I don’t feel convicted by this so it must be ok” when even a spiritually blind person would be able to tell you that you are clearly committing a sin that would not please the Lord.
Similarly, the less discipline I have to maintain a healthy relationship with God the more displaced my relationship with him becomes. And as a result I feel distant from God and weak spiritually, lacking confidence in my faith and my direction as a follower of Christ.
So how do we avoid this? Well, I will relate this to my experience with exercise and physical fitness as well as that is an area in my life where I have experienced some of the most success with consistency and long term sustainability. I’m glad you are reading this but I can honestly say that I am preaching to myself here as consistency in my spiritual journey is something I am striving to improve. So here are some things that I know can help:
1. Develop a plan.
Without a doubt, having a plan is one of the most critical pieces to success in my physical fitness journey and that of every client I have worked with. The plan includes things like:
Setting a schedule (and sticking to it)
Knowing what the goal is for each day
Having a structured workout for each day
Tracking results
These same ideas can be carried over into our spiritual journey. Having a scheduled time each day to get into the word and pray can be a game changer for many. And before anyone is like, you shouldn’t need to make it so rigid. Our time in prayer and in the word should be at the top of our priority list all day long and scheduling a time makes it feel like just a checklist item. Let me just say, knock it off. Kudos to you if you have a strong routine and flying by the seat of your pants every day has been working for you. But I can say for myself, and maybe others can relate, my exercise routine over the course of my life, has been way more consistent than my time in prayer and in the word and it is because it is scheduled and planned for each day.
I don’t think I am alone when I say that it is easy for the days to get away from me and before I know it I am getting ready for bed and setting my alarm for the morning. If I didn’t dedicate time to reading and spending time with the Lord, it most likely didn’t get done that day. So it is imperative to develop a plan.
2. Set obtainable goals
I tell my clients all the time, if you have been working out 0 days per week for the last 5 years stop pretending you are going to workout 7 days per week for an hour each day. Carve out a manageable amount of time several days per week at first and then increase frequency and duration as you grow stronger in your routine. The same can be said for me. If I left off working out 6 days per week at a high intensity, was lifting a certain amount of weight on each exercise, and was able to blast through the workouts in a certain amount of time. It would be unrealistic for me to expect to perform the same way after being away from the gym for an extended period of time.
Similar to our spiritual journey. If you are just getting back into a routine, stop starting with the “read the bible in a year” plan. Focus on a book of the bible and dive in for as long as it takes. If you need help understanding some section of scripture, seek counsel from someone you trust who has a good understanding of scripture. Additionally, if you have been consistently praying for an average of 30 seconds per day around meals, don’t pretend that locking yourself in a dark closet for 2 hours each morning immersed in prayer is a realistic starting point. Set realistic goals you can stick to and progress as you are able.
3. Accountability
I know this has been something in my fitness journey that has kept me on track at times that I wanted to call in “sick” for the day (sick of waking up at 5:00am to workout). But having a workout partner or accountability partner in general has helped me push through those mentally weak moments and kept me on track.
The same can be true for our spiritual journey. Having someone keep you accountable to your plan can be a great asset when it comes to staying on track and growing stronger in your faith.
The combination of these 3 things will help you build a solid routine and the longer you stay consistent with that routine the easier it will become and the more “results” you will see.
Now it’s time for me to put this advice into practice!! I hope that me preaching to myself today was helpful for you in some way, haha.