How to Pray When Your Faith Has Drifted from God
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“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3).
Does this sound at all familiar? You wake up one day and realize that you have been drifting away from the Lord. Oh, don’t get me wrong, you still believe – but somehow your faith and commitment is not quite where it had been. You haven’t picked up your Bible in quite a while, a few weeks, maybe. You rarely pray. Life just seems to have gotten in the way, and you let it. And when you do pray, your prayers seem shallow and procedural. Empty. You’re not even sure anymore if God is listening.
You have been aware that you have started to drift away. You have started to feel more anxious about things, and a bit more disconnected from God. You’re not even sure how it happened – the frog in boiling water syndrome, maybe.
Spiritual drift. Perhaps a term you have never heard before. The thing is, spiritual drift is not uncommon among Christians. It is an occurrence even the strongest of Christians must guard against. Life can most certainly be hard. Sometimes it feels like there is no end in sight to the challenges – or even the pain and grief. Maybe we then let ourselves drift from the light into the gray area – getting way too close to the darkness.
How in the world did you let yourself fall so far, so fast? But it happened, and when you think about it, you hate it. But ask yourself, how do I get that back?
It is not at all uncommon for Christians to find themselves becoming disengaged with their faith. Will Graham, grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, puts it this way, “You may be floating through life with the hope of eternity, but without the passion of the Savior. You may get more excited about a mundane building project than you do about the peace that passes all understanding.”
But let us remember the warnings of Jesus to the church at Ephesus to remember their first love:
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” (Revelation 2:4-7).
The Father Awaits the Prodigal
“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
Many of us know the story of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. A young man leaves his family to live a life of indulgence, but later returns home to ask for forgiveness. The father sees his son off in the distance and runs to greet the son who has come home. He didn’t walk – he ran. He didn’t wait for the son to come; hat in hand, he ran to greet him and to welcome him home where he belongs.
That parable is God waiting for us. We might feel he is distant, but we are the ones who have left home. We might wonder if he’ll take us back, but he is waiting and watching intently for our return. We might be unsure of the greeting we will receive, but God is preparing a banquet. We feel unworthy, but God is celebrating.
“’For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:24).
We may not realize it, but when we have felt God wasn’t there, wasn’t even listening to us, He was always there, awaiting our return. Even when we couldn’t feel his presence, He was there. There is no decision more important than that which you make to return home to Jesus.
Sometimes spiritual drift is a result of what we believe are unanswered prayers. So, instead of turning to Him when we need him the most, we allow ourselves to drift slowly away – not realizing that what we felt were unanswered prayers, God saw as lessons, and He did what he thought was best for us. After all, parents don’t give their kids donuts for dinner, even if they beg.
I read a story recently by Billy Graham of a man who had lost everything: his job, a fortune, his wife and home. He lost everything except his faith in Christ, which, like Job, he held onto tenaciously. But, also like Job, he could not help but wonder why God had allowed it all to happen. Then one day he stopped to watch some men doing stonework on a church being built. One of them was chiseling a triangle shaped piece of stone. When the man asked what he was doing, the workman pointed to an empty triangular hole in the top of the church. “I’m shaping this down here so it will fit in up there.” The man knew then that God was shaping him down here – teaching him lessons – so he would fit in up there.
Sometimes, what we feel are unanswered prayers are simply God saying no to our earthly desires to shape us.
“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15).
Trusting in God…Again
“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).
I have often written that truly trusting in God is one of, if not the most difficult thing to learn for any Christian – particularly newly born-again Christians. After all, how often do we say we are going to trust, and then simply take it back onto our own shoulders? Or perhaps, our prayers are for what we think we want or should happen, but not for His will to be done.
Even Jesus experienced this. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed that the cup He was about to endure be taken from Him. But above all things, He prayed for God’s will to be done (Matthew 26:42). Jesus accepted that what He might want was not what God might want or see as best. Don’t we experience that same disappointment sometimes? And often it leaves us with a feeling that God must not be listening to us.
“He went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done’” (Matthew 26:42).
There are times in everyone’s life when we have felt hopeless and joyless. Or when we felt like there was chaos all around us. But what can bring us back to a foundation of complete joy, peace, and trust is the message brought to us by Christ Jesus. The message of eternal hope and trust in Him. The message that caused you to give your life to Him to begin with.
When we gave our lives to Jesus, it meant a change in us. We are told by Paul in his letter to the Romans that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead resides in us. That means the same power that raised our Savior from the dead lives within you and can bring you – not just the hope of eternity – but the peace, the joy and trust that can shape and embolden our lives here on earth.
Giving our lives to Christ is like stepping into a new world. Yes, we remain in this world – but we are simply passing through. Jesus Himself, in his incredible prayer for us in John 17, said that we are in this world, yes, but we are not of the world, even as He is not of it (v. 16).
In Matthew, chapter 8, the story is told of when the disciples were with Jesus in a boat on the open water. A furious storm came up and the waves were sweeping over the boat, and the disciples were afraid for their very lives. Jesus remained asleep in the midst of the chaos. When they woke Him up, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” and he immediately calmed the storm.
Now is the time to stop believing whatever lies are going on in your head. You don’t need to be perfect or have behaved perfectly to come back to Jesus. You don’t have to continue to beat yourself up over and over for what is in the past.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
God called you out of the darkness the first time and He’s there waiting for you with open arms for your return. He’s calling you to come back home.
Now is the time for you to enter a new season. Now is the time to start again. Start to recapture your faith and take a step closer again to God. Not tomorrow. Now.
Going Back to the Source
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).
Think you don’t know how to pray? Sit down alone and tell God that. Tell Him about your challenges, tell Him what is hurting your heart, and tell Him about your joys. Thank him for opening your heart to him, opening your eyes to your spiritual drift and saving you from it. Tell him you need Him in your life. More than that, you need Him to lead you. That you want nothing more – and nothing less – than to be in His will, not your own. Ask Him to help you trust. Ask these things every day.
As you begin to read your Bible again – and you will begin to read your Bible again – read one chapter from the gospels every day. But also read the Psalms. Wow – David’s words really seem to hit home. So often he is questioning God and asking why His life has been such a mess, and yet he always ends the prayer with praise.
Nothing – and I do mean nothing – will keep God from pursuing you. You are His beloved child and His love for you is everlasting.
I have long-saved this version of Psalm 23, issued by Advent Health, adopted by Todd Chobotar:
“Lord, you are my great healer. You meet all my deepest needs.
You guide my weary heart to safe pastures and lead me beside peaceful waters. You offer rest for my restless soul.
For the sake of your good name, you put my feet on the road to righteousness.
But even if I walk down desolate pathways of pain or sorrow, disease or death, I won’t be afraid. For suffering has no victory if you’re with me.
Your presence is all the comfort and courage I need.
You give me reasons to celebrate in spite of my trials.
You bless me with unexpected joy. My heart overflows.
Your love and grace follow me all the days of my life. I’m grateful and secure knowing you, my great healer, hold me in Your arms and will restore my soul.
Amen.”
Parents, when you put your kids in the car and head off – do your kids worry about anything or does life just go on in the back seat? Can we say the same thing about our trust in God?
We have this new life – and a new heart that can trust completely in the One in whom we believe. When it feels like the joy of life is being sucked away or you are in the middle of chaos, give it to him and just know He will take care of you.
Just know.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
Photo credit: Unsplash/Ellena Mcguinness
Greg doesn’t pretend to be a pastor, a theologian, or a Bible expert, but offers the perspective of an everyday guy on the same journey as everyone else – in pursuit of truth.
Greg can be reached by email or on Facebook @ Greg Grandchamp - Author.