1. Prayer Is a Catalyst for Spiritual Growth
Dear Jim,
It’s great to hear that you want to experience a deeper connection with God. Rest assured that your dissatisfaction with your current relationship is not indicative of any failure or inadequacy on your part. Rather, I suspect that God placed this dissatisfaction in your heart as a way of inviting you into a more fulfilling relationship with him.
When I hear someone say that their spiritual life feels dry, the first thing I want to know is how their personal prayer life is going. A regular experience of life-giving prayer breathes new life into our relationship with God. It helps us to grow and mature spiritually. There is empirical evidence for this in research done by a church association in Illinois (Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth, by Hawkins and Parkinson, 2011), where they surveyed individuals from over 1,000 churches and found that no matter where people are in their journey with God--whether they are new Christians, experienced churchgoers, or somewhere in between--personal spiritual practices are always a catalyst for spiritual growth.
You mentioned that rather than talking to God in a dedicated time of prayer, you try to talk to him throughout the day. While this is a good practice to cultivate, it should not take the place of dedicated time spent in prayer each day. It is a different discipline altogether. For most people, talking to God throughout the day is not as satisfying as spending dedicated time in prayer.
Let’s compare three different married couples: The first couple spends all day texting each other, but they do not eat dinner together and do not see each other in the evening. The second couple does not text, but they eat dinner together in the evenings. The third couple texts throughout the day and eats dinner together. It is easy to guess which couple has the most satisfying relationship, but it is also easy to guess that the couple who only has dinner together likely enjoys a deeper connection than the couple who only texts each other throughout the day. I suggest that you try setting aside dedicated time where you sit and talk to God on a regular basis, and see if that breathes new life into your relationship with him.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
How would you describe the state of your current relationship with God? If you sense dissatisfaction or restlessness in it, write down a prayer to God asking him to show you what that is about and how to respond.
In the description of the three married couples, which one do you think most closely describes your relationship with God? Which one do you feel God wants for you in your relationship with him?
