Reevaluating | Back to the Basics

It has become so hard for me to stay in the habit of reading the word daily and praying. I act like I am okay and while I am still doing a lot, my heart’s not in it. I read my bible to write blogs or do a journal, I pray for safety and when I wake up, go to bed, and eat meals. I go to church and I listen to tons of Christian music. But why I am feeling like that is not enough? Why does it feel like all of this stuff that should be awesome and lead to development of my faith feel like I’m just going through the motions?

I think the answer to my question is that I am not personalizing my time with the Lord, not prioritizing it, not doing it for the right motivations. Yesterday I posted about being in the in-between and how we should still celebrate with the Lord during those times, but how do we do that? I left it open ended, but even after a day, I am already struggling! So I am going to look at the things I am doing (or not doing) and see what can be done to make a change in the way I approach the Lord.

Firstly, I am not personalizing my time with the Lord. I am letting it be generic, studying what other people are studying, not bringing him my problems. To have a true relationship, you have to give some of yourself, which I have not been doing well lately. My solution to this is to look and see where in your life you can improve. Study that and ask God to help you with those things. Don’t just do a study because everyone on Instagram is doing it, find something that is relevant to you and will re-excite you to spend time with the Lord!

Next is that I am not prioritizing my time with the Lord. I am putting my to-dos before him. I have been so caught up in all the things I have had to do lately that I have neglected my time with him. To remedy this, set aside a time of day where all you do is be with the Lord, whether it’s a study, meditation, playing worship music, or praying. I used to be really good about having a structured quiet time, but I haven’t made time for it. Do it whenever in the day works for you, but make sure you have having daily time with him!

Lastly, I am not doing any of it for the right reasons. I do it because it’s what I’ve always done, it’s what everyone (including myself) expects of me. So instead of taking time to get to the root of the problem, I go through the motions. I don’t reevaluate how I do things, I just keep chugging along. You should not force yourself to spend time with the Lord, you should desire it! Since I have been forcing myself, I don’t want it. To help this, I won’t be so hard on myself. I used to have a strict structure to my time with the Lord and I had a schedule at which certain things had to be done, now I am going to take my own time and focus solely on fortifying my relationship with God.

I once heard, “You’ve got your bible, you’ve got your knees, now use them!” I think this is the simplest way to go about reevaluating faith. Go back to the basics. Just you and God. On your knees with your bible. Rediscover that childlike faith and come back to your first and true love!