There was a time when people attended Sunday School, went to Sunday service, attended Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services along with attending special services. People were use to going to church and a lot of their lives centered around the Word of God and God's people.
This behavior fostered a belief in the importance of a relationship with God. People leaned on their relationship with the Lord to stay on track. They knew God in good times and had an assurance of His help during bad times.
Now things have changed. The average Christian attends church 1 hour on Sunday. According to the Barna Institute, only 29% of Christians spend time reading God's word daily. We have removed prayer from the public school and out of the government. Many have even removed Him from their homes..
Pastors are not helping to promote the power of prayer and seeking God as they should either. A cross denominational survey has brought to light some very revealing statistics about the prayer lives of many pastors today. The study shows 80% of pastors spend less than 15 minutes a day in prayer and 95% of pastors do not pray regularly with their wives. If the pulpit does not focus on prayer as the point of spiritual power is it any wonder that the congregation is floundering in prayer power as well?
When we do not hear from God, it is because we have stopped talking to Him. God will not scream in our ears. He speaks as a gentleman in a soft voice for all who would hear him. When we think of conversing with God we can compare it to talking to a friend. Many times those conversations are spontaneous and vary depending on the day and how we feel. It's the same way with God. He is not looking for some cookie cutter relationship with us. He wants to talk to us each day and to relate to us based on where we are.
The Bible says "seek the Lord while He may be found". This implies that there may come a day when we cannot find the Lord even if we wanted to seek Him. People need to look for the Lord whenever they think about him. Sundays are great to focus but there are 6 other days we have as well. Look for Him everyday and make it a great one!
This behavior fostered a belief in the importance of a relationship with God. People leaned on their relationship with the Lord to stay on track. They knew God in good times and had an assurance of His help during bad times.
Now things have changed. The average Christian attends church 1 hour on Sunday. According to the Barna Institute, only 29% of Christians spend time reading God's word daily. We have removed prayer from the public school and out of the government. Many have even removed Him from their homes..
Pastors are not helping to promote the power of prayer and seeking God as they should either. A cross denominational survey has brought to light some very revealing statistics about the prayer lives of many pastors today. The study shows 80% of pastors spend less than 15 minutes a day in prayer and 95% of pastors do not pray regularly with their wives. If the pulpit does not focus on prayer as the point of spiritual power is it any wonder that the congregation is floundering in prayer power as well?
When we do not hear from God, it is because we have stopped talking to Him. God will not scream in our ears. He speaks as a gentleman in a soft voice for all who would hear him. When we think of conversing with God we can compare it to talking to a friend. Many times those conversations are spontaneous and vary depending on the day and how we feel. It's the same way with God. He is not looking for some cookie cutter relationship with us. He wants to talk to us each day and to relate to us based on where we are.
The Bible says "seek the Lord while He may be found". This implies that there may come a day when we cannot find the Lord even if we wanted to seek Him. People need to look for the Lord whenever they think about him. Sundays are great to focus but there are 6 other days we have as well. Look for Him everyday and make it a great one!
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