Dear Friends,
Last night I was watching the Connecticut Seton Hall basketball game.
For much of the game Connecticut had the upper hand, stretching the lead to as
much as 13 points in the second half. But in a matter of minutes this all
changed. A couple of steals and several costly turnovers by Connecticut led to
easy
Seton Hall baskets and created a swing in momentum that changed the course of
the game.
Suddenly Seton Hall had captured the momentum, and their
home court fans were now fully engaged and energized as they watched their team
creep back into the game. With two seconds left and a point behind, a tip in by
a Seton Hall player enabled them to eke out an exciting one point victory.
What was the key to their victory? It was a momentum shift.
A train moving at top speed can easily crash through a
five-foot-thick reinforced steal barrier. But if you place a
one-inch block of wood on the track in front of that same train while it is at
rest, the train can’t move and inch along those tracks.
Momentum can make the difference between winning and losing in a
basketball game, but it can also make a difference in winning and losing in our
spiritual lives.
Our Christian life should be active and growing. We should be
moving forward and making spiritual progress daily. But sometimes we get stuck
in a spiritual rut, and we lose our momentum. We feel like that train
which is stopped by that one inch block. We just can’t get ourselves
moving.
There are people who come to know the Lord, and they are so
excited, and they start moving full speed forward with God. They build up their
spiritual momentum, but them something happens.
They start ignoring those spiritual disciplines and they slowly
begin losing that spiritual momentum.
Their quiet time is inconsistent, their church worship becomes
irregular, their prayer life is now sporadic, they no longer are
enthusiastically sharing their faith, and the fellowship they once enjoyed with
others is almost nonexistent.
They have put on their spiritual brakes, and in doing so they have
lost their momentum and are slowly coming to a spiritual stop.
But it is never too late to regain that momentum.
If this describes you, God is calling you to confess your
sins, repent and return to the things that produced your spiritual
momentum. Luke writes, “Therefore, turn back, that your sins may be blotted
out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts
3:19
Obedience is the key to reestablishing your spiritual momentum.
You must get back to those things that God called you to do. Obey Him in your
thoughts and actions and reestablish those spiritual disciplines and in
so doing you will “draw near to God” (James 4:8).
Remember momentum demands movement, so get moving and keep moving
toward that glorious finish line.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
P.S. The only place a believer cannot stay; he or she can’t stay
put.
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