It's very precious that Christians have spiritual fervor. The Bible records, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love," and "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord," encouraging us to be fervent. A Christian with a fiery heart can give light to others like a light put on its stand, even though he or she has mediocre competence and talents.
However, sometimes we are the same as others, but our hearts are dull and even indifferent. We don't love brothers and sisters, our ministries, even losing power to move forward in the faith journey...The Lord Jesus blamed the church in Laodicean for being neither cold nor hot, saying to them, "I wish you were either one or the other!"
Why do Christians lose fervor? What to do then? Preacher Chen from a church of Henan addresses his view on this:
First of all, there is little relationship between sermons and life.He gives an example that he heard a sermon entitled "How Christians should Prepare Themselves for the Second Coming of the Lord", which lasted one and a half hours. At first moved by this, he pondered over it and realized that this sermon could not actually change him. The reason was that the sermon was disconnected from life rather than there was something wrong with the preacher or the sermon.
Secondly, our faith is divorced from life. Currently, a type of Christians behave differently in and out of the church. Once an undergraduate said that he appeared an honest and obedient believer in the church but went to entertainment venues like KTV outside the church. That was bad in his eyes, however, he couldn't change.
Why?
Firstly, you may be blamed in the church for your worldly deeds or habits. Fearing of the exposure of the bad habit or deed, you have to pretend like another person.
Moreover, some believers don't expect their life to be affected by their faith. They know that they can't do bad things they're accustomed to doing in the real life, like going to KTV, while they don't want to change them.
Thirdly, some Chinese churches seldom realize that sermons need to be applied out of the church and believers should be promoted to practice their religions.Chen adds, "Here's a real example. Believers get used to watching programs in the church on Christmas. A friend of mine holds that believers can care the seniors in the home for the aged on this special day since Christmas honors the Lord's birth. But those who are invited claim that they can do this on the other days except Christmas because they want to celebrate the Lord's birthday. So they will go to church for worship."
Actually, it's not just Christmas. Believers may not practice their faith in ordinary time. Churches hardly guide the congregation to walk into society for practicing the faith but deliver the messages like "preparing yourselves for the night is nearly over and the day is almost here".So, what should we do when we lack spiritual fervor in life and service?Churches should make adjustments first: interpret the faith by connecting it with the real life. If the church is excluded from the world, Christians are cut off from the world. Jesus said, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world." A large percentage of people ignore this sentence. Churches need to meditate on it.
What's more, churches should pay more attention to little problems in our lives on sermons. Famous online sermons are high-end, classy and high grade despite that sermons concerning the trivial are not welcomed. John the Baptist preached sermons with a clear aim. He taught around the business problems to business person and tax problems to tax collectors. Sermons should never be disconnected from life, otherwise, believers will consider that their faith has little to do with themselves because God is not in their life.
For believers, they should know that this state is abnormal. Then tell the problems to pastors or preachers and ask them to give answers. For instance, what should a believer do when he or she likes to go to KTV and fail to alter the hobby? Is there any problem with faith or himself or herself? Try to solve it instead of leaving it unrepaired.
Thanks to the Internet, believers can get access to more ways to the problems more than from pastors or preachers. As a result, believers should seek the roots of their faith problems and change.
Translated By: Karen Luo.
