by MW Cook

Every disease has it’s symptoms, some are easier to see than others.

“Faith feeds on the Word of God. Without a steady diet it gets weaker and weaker. If you are dissatisfied with your Christian courage and joy and purity of heart, check the way you are feeding your faith.” – John Piper

I’m leaving. I’m taking my wife, kid and a group of people to a far away land soon. It’s a hot place, lots of people, a dozen languages I don’t understand, far away from every comfort I hold so dearly here. I often ask myself why I’m doing this at all. Sometimes I have no answer for that. Sometimes it seems like a huge burden that I never really bargained for. Of course, it only feels this way when I find myself far away from God and His Word.

When I starve myself from the Word of God I find myself thinking like the world more and more. My taste for spiritual things diminishes and my taste for carnal things increases. All of a sudden my desire to kick it off to Pakistan dies away and my desire for 8 hours of Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic flares up. I’m sick. There are symptoms that I get when I’m not constantly taking in spiritual food:

  • Joylessness in the thoughts of Christ

  • Lack of zeal for things of God

  • Delight in worldly / sinful things

  • Damaged relationships with fellow Christians

  • Damaged marriage relationship

  • Spiritual ‘tiredness’

  • “Start to desire things I know are not in line with the life of Christ” – Jules

  • Spending far too much time on useless things – code

On the other hand, when I am consistent and devoted to the word and to prayer, I find my spirit refreshed and my courage returns. At this point I don’t need to ask why I’m going away, it’s so very clear and the answer fills me with delight. It’s more than a little stupid, eh? We know what brings us the most delight, and we run away from it most times. Humans aren’t rational creatures.

In other news, I’m a little frustrated. I can’t understand how some people can claim to have a high view of Christ, and yet deny the inerrancy of Scripture. This makes no sense to me. That’s all.

I’m done.

PS – lemme know some more symptoms of a poor devotional life and I’ll post them up too!