Practical Ways to Overcome Spiritual Stagnation and Embrace Vibrant Faith
"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Romans 12:11
“Don’t let our love grow cold. I’m calling out, light the fire again.” Brian Doerkson
As a Florida boy, I don’t have too many opportunities to complain about the extreme cold. During winters, when my northern friends are shoveling snow, most of our coolest days are still warm enough for me to go for a jog in shorts. But recently, my kids showed me a video of four friends who went on a survival challenge in freezing temperatures. They split into teams of two, setting a budget to buy the necessary supplies to keep them warm. One team researched intentionally, investing in only a few quality items that were highly rated. The other went crazy buying a wide array of ‘fads’ with outlandish promises.
On the night of the challenge, the first team was so warm in their tent that they needed to remove layers. Meanwhile, the second team struggled. Their tent wouldn’t close, their clothing didn’t fit, and the wood for their fire couldn’t stay lit. As the sun went down, the cold ran bitter in their bones, and it wasn’t long before they found themselves retreating in defeat.
What was the difference? It was the way they invested to feed and protect their fire.
When it comes to following Jesus, I’ve been both sets of friends. I know what it is to rest in the warmth of the Father’s embrace with a zeal so hot there is plenty to share. And I know all too well what it looks like to give my attention to a bunch of passing fads and sadly watch my passion's flames die down.
How about you? As we start a new year, do you find yourself spiritually stuck — going through the motions but longing for a deeper connection with God? Are you feeling the bitter cold of apathy, spiritual lethargy, or just stale Christianity? Here are five practical steps to reignite your spiritual fire and reclaim the renewed passion that is your destiny!
1. Go Back to Where You Heard Him Last
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22
When I am struggling to hear God, I often stop and ask, “What is the last thing he told me to do? Did I do what he said?”
Genuine faith isn’t passive — it’s active. Sometimes, our faith grows cold because we’ve stepped away from the Source of the flame for a path of our own choosing. What God calls us to is always for our good, but it isn’t enough to merely know what he says. We have to follow him and do it.
What steps of obedience have you been delaying? What would it look like today to go back and do what he says?
2. Don’t Put a Period Where a Comma Belongs
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9
It’s easy to trust God when life is working. But what do we do when we are trying our best to follow God and everything seems to blow up in our faces? Here, it is only natural to get discouraged, wrestle with doubt, or even question the goodness or presence of God, but we’d be wise to remember Job.
For a moment, Job lost everything, and it seemed like none of God’s promises were true. But it wasn’t the end of the story; it was merely a comma in the middle of the sentence! From Job, we learn that God is patient and welcomes our questions, our laments, and our deepest wrestling. However, we skate into sketchy territory when we stop trusting God and start trying to be god over our own stories.
God IS God, and he IS Good. The “here and now” trials you are facing are only here now. As you wait on the Lord, he will come through for your deliverance and full restoration. May we not be like the pots demanding the Potter defend his design (see Isaiah 45:9-10). If you’re still breathing, God’s still building, and your best is yet to come!
What trials am I facing that I need to see with new eyes?
3. Get Refreshingly Honest
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." Psalm 51:10-12
Renewal begins with transparency. Take time to be honest with God about where you’ve grown cynical or cold. Tell him about your disappointment, your fears, and even your resentment. Don’t “church it up” with all of the words you think a holy person should use, but simply bear your heart as you would with a trusted friend. (After all, that’s who he is!) Ask Him to renew your heart, restore your joy, and rekindle your passion.
Where is it time to get refreshingly honest with God?
4. Step Out of Stale
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19
I adore my wife, and part of what has kept our marriage exciting is that we’ve changed the rhythms of what we do together with the changing seasons of our lives. The stuff we loved doing twenty years ago has changed in its expression in some ways, and we’ve embraced that as a good thing.
Sometimes, we grow stagnant with God because we are trying to stand in today while still clinging to yesterday’s routines. We are studying the same version of the Bible we always have, reading it the same way we always have. Our prayer time with God and the things we say look the same way it always has. We are bored, and we feel guilty.
But what if the Holy Spirit is prompting your heart to pursue him anew? We are told to meet with God in the “secret place,” and here’s what I’ve learned: the secret place is “secret” because it moves! God has new adventures he wants to take you on and fresh ways he desires to speak to you.
Where do I need to break out of stale routines to get my whimsy back?
5. Get Out of the Weeds
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33
Imagine how strange it would be to encounter a team of football players who met every Sunday but only ever to talk about football. Each week, they’d spend hours looking at playbooks, rehearsing their touchdown celebrations, and giving each other pre-game pep talks, but they never suited up to play the game.
They’d probably be pretty bored, right?
One of the greatest problems facing modern Christianity is that we’ve got lots of players who confuse talking about God’s kingdom with joining Jesus as he builds it.
The call of the Gospel is:
to love global neighbors,
to seek justice and to love mercy,
to heal the sick and to set the captives free,
to walk as peacemakers and ministers of reconciliation,
to dance in the freedom of forgiveness and to teach others the steps,
to seek and save the lost,
to look after widows and orphans in their distress and keep oneself unstained in the world...
until it is on earth as it is in heaven.
It isn’t boring stuff.
What distractions have become like weeds in your life, keeping you from the simplicity of the Gospel? Where is it time to get back into the center of your mission field?
Your God ADORES you. And right now, he stands, arms open wide to bring you back into the warmth of his embrace as he reignites every fire that has grown cold. As you prioritize obedience, gain perspective, open up in vulnerability, embark on a new journey of intimacy, and re-focus on the simplicity of the Gospel, you’ll find the oxygen that revives your spiritual flame. Take the first step today—God is ready to meet you there.
Which of these steps will you take this week? Let me know in the comments!
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