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When Your Relationship with God Has Changed Over Time · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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  Track 1: For his first few years as a Christian, J. S. Park ran
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  on pure adrenaline. The worship nights and the goosebumps felt
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  like God's standing right there in the room. Then it began to
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  fade. The songs that used to move him started to feel routine.
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  The highs came further and further apart, and he caught
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  himself wondering if he had ever known God at all. The truth was,
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  something had changed in his faith. He just had the diagnosis
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  backward. We'll come back to what Park came to see, but
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  welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger.
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  There was a stretch of ministry years ago I'd never want to
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  repeat. It was pretty tough. While I was in that stretch, I
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  couldn't see what God was trying to accomplish in my life. I
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  prayed about it and asked what he was doing, and I got nothing
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  back in return. I can see it now, though. Looking at that stretch
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  today, I can tell you what he was building in me, and I
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  wouldn't be the pastor I am today without it. None of that
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  was available to me at the time. I had to get years down the road
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  before I could look back and recognize his hand in it. Jesus
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  for 20, 30, or 40 years, and it doesn't feel the way it did at
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  the start. The worship service doesn't move you like it did
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  when you were 25. You pray, and it's meaningful, but most days
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  feel, well, ordinary. when praying felt like the heavens
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  opened and the angel chorus rang. Then comes a thought that makes
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  you reevaluate. You start wondering whether you've lost
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  something or whether you ever had it. That's a frightening
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  thing to wonder about yourself. You've been a Christian too long
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  to admit you're not sure what you've got. Moses gave his
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  people an assignment for exactly this moment. Remember how the
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  Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these 40
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  years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character and
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  to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Think
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  about where they're standing. This is the second generation.
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  The children are the ones who came out of Egypt. They're
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  camped on the edge of Canaan and about to walk in. Moses has them
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  look back at 40 years before he turns them loose to go forward.
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  Then look at what the verse says God was doing out there,
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  humbling you and testing you to prove your character. The Hebrew
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  beneath that last phrase is to know what was in your heart.
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  Those 40 years were not God losing track of anybody. He led
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  them through that wilderness on purpose, and part of it was to
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  show them what they were made of. Now, read the next verse,
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  because it gives you his method. He let them get hungry and then
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  fed them manna. Verse 3 says he did it to teach them that people
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  don't live by bread alone. He took away the ordinary supply so
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  they'd learn where their life came from. Then there's verse 4.
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  For all these 40 years, your clothes didn't wear out, and
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  your feet didn't blister or swell. Forty years of sandals
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  holding together. God took care of a nation so well that the
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  care became almost invisible, and Moses makes a point of
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  putting it in the record. So, a stretch of faith with fewer
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  highs in it is not a stretch with less God in it. Forty years
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  of clothes that held up is the same God as the fire on the
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  mountain, even if not quite as fiery. Then, in the same chapter,
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  Moses tells them when to be careful. Verse 11. He says,
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  that's when to watch out, when they're full and prosperous with
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  fine houses built. Verse 14 says,
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  This gives you a way to tell maturity from simply drifting.
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  And verse 2 already gives it to you. God's test was whether they
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  would obey His commands. So, ask yourself that question instead
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  of the feelings question. A mature faith still obeys and
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  still remembers. A faith that's drifting stopped doing both a
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  while back, and most people in that spot have a fair which one
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  they are. So, do what Moses told them to do. Look back on purpose.
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  Park had read the fading fire as proof that God was slipping away.
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  What he came to see was almost the opposite. The feelings
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  settled because the relationship deepened. Think of it like a
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  marriage. Year 1, it's all butterflies. Year 20 is a lot
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  calmer and far stronger. A love that's ocean deep rather than
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  lake shallow. The early thrill of faith works the same way.
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  When the goose bumps come less often, God hasn't left the room.
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  You've just moved from infatuation to something that
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  lasts. Park stopped chasing the highs and let his faith grow
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  into the deep, steady relationship it was always meant
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  to become. Stay with that marriage picture because I
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  believe it holds up where it counts. Nobody looks at a couple
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  married 40 years and worries that they've lost the
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  butterflies. No, instead, we admire them. Then we turn around
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  and grade our own faith by the butterflies. Here's today's
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  challenge. Get something to write on and list what God has
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  done in your life. Go back as far as you can remember. Write
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  down the things nobody else would find impressive. The
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  stretches when God took care of you without you thinking about
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  it. Then find one entry on that list you couldn't see while you
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  were living it and mark it down. That's your evidence he works
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  where you can't watch him. And thank him for both stages. The
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  one you were in back then and the one you're in right now.
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  Father, you told your people to remember the 40 years and you
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  said you had run every one of those years on purpose. Thank
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  you that you kept their clothes from wearing out and that you
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  still work in ways nobody would write a song about. For
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  everybody listening who's afraid the cooling means they've lost
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  you, let them look back and see your hand on it. Keep us obeying
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  and keep us remembering. In Jesus' name, amen. If you need
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  prayer today, I'd love to hear from you. You can leave me a
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  voicemail at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com
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  slash voicemail. I listen to every single one and it would be
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  an honor to bring your name before the Lord. Thanks for
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  joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, 40
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  years of clothes that didn't wear out made it into the Bible.
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  Look back this week and thank him for both stages. Come back
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  next time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in
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  God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great day.