Hey gurlies! Welcome to another Spark! Today's Spark is about Spiritual laziness. Let me ask you this. Have you ever heard the quote "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard? Perhaps if you are in sports your coach has told you this quote, or maybe you have just read it somewhere. Its basically saying, you can't just be good at things. You have to work hard and consistently to get there.
Have you been saved, but still don't pray or grow each day? Let's look at a verse to help with this BIG point:
Look this up: 1 Corinthians 4
In this passage, Paul is confronting a church about this spiritual laziness point. He even calls them "baby" when it comes to their spiritual growth. These people are Christians BUT they do have problems and are immature.
We experience this same type of laziness.
Just like this church, we have problems too. God does work in us after we are saved but we still need to pursue knowing Him. In fact in Philippians Paul says his goal is to Know Him. In Philippians 3, it says things like "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on", and "I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead".
Basically, Paul hasn't reached his goal of knowing Him, but he is working toward it and Pressing on.
So yes! Even Paul is pressing on and working toward his goals just like you and me! We have to pursue Christ. Our growth has to be active! So, how do we work toward avoiding this laziness?
First, we need to maintain. Maintain what? Not just reading our Bibles, but daily making sure Christ is in control of our lives and taking in Spiritual intake. We need to pray and keep in step with Christ daily!
We don't need to be distracted with perfection either.
Yes! What a relief! We don't need perfection in our praying to be closer to god, and in fact, trying for perfection will distract us from our main goal. Our main goal is being driven to pray and have a Spiritual life.
Next, to avoid the laziness, we need to be ready to confess sin. If we want to loose that laziness, we need to have the habit of confessing sin. I think this is a good time for some more Scripture:
Look this up: Hebrews 12
Basically, what we are seeing in this passage is that If you want to grow, you must set aside sin. Yes! You have to get rid of it. In fact, if we don't get rid of our sin, it will do much damage.
Love for sin will take away our love for God since God Hates Sin.
In Proverbs it also says, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy". Loving our sin and not getting rid of it will make us love God less.
Well, that concludes todays Spark! If you want to learn more about this topic, listen to this sermon. It will be helpful to you when overcoming this sin.
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