Bored with the Christian life? In a rut or dry spell? Perhaps you need to heed Jesus’ words to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2. They did all the right stuff but God said, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
Solution to Boredom and Dry Spells in the Christian Life
Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first (Rev. 2:5, NASB)
God’s solution for the church of Ephesus was three-fold.
1) Remember
2) Repent
3) Retool
To get beyond boredom, to get out of our ruts or dry spells, we need to apply all three of these steps.
If all we do is remember how it used to be when we first came to know Jesus, we could actually find ourselves sliding into a deeper despair and discontent. If we merely try to retool, doing the deeds we did at first, without repenting, we may simply be going through the motions. We will then undoubtedly soon find ourselves back in the same condition.
Repenting is an important part of the solution that moves us from mere regrets to truly changing. The word repent deals with the mind more than behavior. The Greek word used for repent, metanoeo, comes from the word meta, meaning after or behind, and the word noeo, meaning to perceive with the mind. This suggests that after we have gotten to a certain place in our lives, we identify where we went wrong and change our way of thinking so we can get to where we should be.
When you find the Christian life to be boring or have fallen into a dry spell, stuck in a rut, you need a change of perspective so that when you “do the deeds you did at first” you can once again find meaning, purpose, and joy in it.
Ways Thinking About the Christian Life May Need to Change
Over the next four posts we will consider the following perceptions about the Christian life that you may need to change to move from boredom and dryness to the abundance of life Jesus came to give us (Jn. 10:10). Click on the links below.
1) Duty vs. Delight
2) Destination vs. Journey
3) Law vs. Grace
4) Drudgery vs Joy
When you describe the Christian life with words like duty, drudgery, destination, and law, you will not tend to enjoy it very much. You won’t tend to step out in faith as much. However, when it is about delight, joy, and grace, and you understand that you are on a journey, you will see the Christian life as an exciting adventure based on relationship, not duty.