The most common pastoral question I ask church members is ‘how is your Christian life going?’ So what things do we look to in order to best describe our Christian life? Anything that speaks to our relationship with God. The Christian life is not a matter of good deeds, following God’s laws or believing the right things, though these are important. What God wants most is a deep and growing relationship with Him.
Strangely, people will rarely speak of their church attendance when answering this question, whether their attendance is good or bad. Yet if worshipping God (i.e. ascribing ultimate value) with our church family is not our top priority of the week, then surely something is going wrong with our relationship with God.
Another indicator people never speak of is their tithing; probably because money is not spoken of in polite company. Yet how we handle our money is a direct indicator to our relationship with the Lord. Tithing shows that money is not our ultimate treasure; God is.
People most commonly point to their daily Bible reading and prayer. Given recent research has shown daily devotions to be THE most important indicator to spiritual growth, this is a great place to start. Those we have the closest relationship with are those we spend the most time with. So while church and tithing are deeply important to building a deeper relationship with the Lord, spending regular time with Him is the only true indicator.
Given there is nothing God wants more from you than deepening your relationship with Him, why not ask Him to help you DELIGHT in spending time with him. We always make time for what we enjoy. Imagine how your Christian life would be going if spending time with God was the thing you enjoyed most in life? Let us ask for the Spirit to make this our reality, to the glory of God.
