Are You Drowsy Spiritually? Hold On With God’s Strength

“We shall not grow weary upon waiting on God, if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.” Charles Spurgeon

Today I am sharing once again from my dearly departed mentor, Pat Carver. Though he words were written before I was born, they still apply to us today. It seems as if with all that is going on in the world that we can become lethargic and give up. I myself have been guilty recently. Let us get up, run the race of endurance of Jesus Christ!

Life can lead to lethargy

Are there times when you feel drowsy and dull spiritually? Is it difficult to keep from being inactive in spiritual things? Do you sometimes feel as if a blanket of fogginess surrounds you, as if you are in a stupor? What is taking place?

Are you feeling lethargic?

The word lethargy means: apathy, lassitude (weakness), indifference, inactivity, and insensibility. Now, we would never knowingly, or willingly, take on any of those characteristics, or have an attitude that involved those things. So, what is taking place? In order to keep us from using our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical energy for the Kingdom of God, and being alert to all Father speaks to us-Satan will try to make us discouraged. He will try to bring despair and mental weariness, into our realm of living so can dull that cutting edge of our faith, and stop what we are doing for God.

Life can make us weary

What are some of the ways he tries? He first of all will come against us in our thought life, and try to steal our hope. If he can make us hopeless, we won’t activate our faith. He knows it takes faith to get anything done and he knows faith pleases God, (Hebrews 11:6) and that faith works. So, if he can head us off at the pass by stealing our hope, the he can detour our faith. Hope is the bridge to get over to faith. Hebrews 10:35 says, “Cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward.”

Keeping our eyes on the world can dull our spirit

Another area he tries to cause us to be defeated is by getting our eyes on people, and how many of them are not walking in victory. When we let their actions, words, and failures come against us, we are allowing the law of sin and death to have dominion and power over us. Romans 8:1-2 tells us we have been freed from that because of the Law of Life in Christ Jesus. When the enemy brings the pressure of the law of sin and death against us, we become dull of hearing, dull of speaking, and dull of doing. We will be lethargic in our attitudes about God’s Word. We will begin to make excuses as to why we don’t have time or opportunity. We will become lazy and indifferent regarding our confession of God’s promises in our lives. Our prayers become rote rather than meaningful. We make God’s work robotic rather than loving. The commitment that once burned within us becomes drowsy and dull.

Lethargy shows up in our physical lives

Spiritual lethargy will show up in a physical lives. The enemy knows if he can bring circumstances to bear and things look impossible, he can cause us to be dull of hearing and our hearts will become callous and insensible. It is if we forget that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but rather powers and principalities in dark places. We must check ourselves and see if we have grown apathetic in our spiritual habits, in our mental attitudes, in our love towards others, in our determination to walk victorious. If we have, what can we do to become un-lethargic?

• Realize what is going on and make a determined choice not to allow it to go on any longer. Deuteronomy 30:8-20
• Submit ourselves to Father God and His Word and choose to read it, hear it, do it, speak it, and let it be your life, and no other.
• Tell the enemy to go away in Jesus’ Name, resist him in Jesus’ Name and stop his assignment. Mark 16:15-20, James 4:7
• Pray, commit time each day to prayer for others and for your needs, believe God to answer, He said He would.
• Decide to live a holy life, one that is pure and above reproach.
• Forgive. If you don’t, it will affect your spirit, soul, and body.
• Forget what others have done to you and against you. God has chosen to remember our iniquities and transgressions no more. He put them all on Jesus (Isaiah 53:4-5). Let’s do the same with others and remember what Jesus did-not what others did.

Finally, let’s walk in the activity of the Word of God. Let’s be active in spiritual and physical things: Active in love, peace, forgiveness, giving, in confession of His Word, in a peaceful mind, helping and victory!