WHEN WILL GOD'S PEOPLE LEARN— OR WILL THEY?
The Old Testament records the fickle history of the nation of Israel, a history of spiritual peaks and valley. One catastrophe of national proportion would be followed by a turning to God and spiritual revival only for them to fall into sin. Over and over this cycle repeated itself. In the New Testament one finds the accounts of disciples like well-known John Mark and the apostle Peter to lesser known Demas who had moments of spiritual peaks as well as dismal personal valleys.

The fluctuations in the spiritual fervor of believers is not to be unexpected. In the Lord’s message to the Laodicean church, Jesus said, “thou art neither cold nor hot’ (Rev. 3:15). Jesus said that this church was “lukewarm” (vs. 16). In this passage, the Greek word translated “lukewarm” mean tepid and implies being unenthusiastic or halfhearted. On a Fall Saturday afternoon, I watched a youth football game. The sports complex was filled with hundreds of screaming parents watching their children playing ball. We live about four blocks from the YMCA sports field and during ball season on Saturday mornings I can stand in my back yard and hear the shouts of enthusiastic parents yelling in support of their child and his or her team. Odessa is a sports-minded town. It is the home of Friday Night Lights. The fall that I moved to Odessa, I asked the church to schedule a revival. I was told that it might not be wise to plan a meeting during football season. I was determined that I would not let football interfere with revival services. The first few nights were great. Then on Friday night only a handful of people showed up. Needless to say I was very disappointed that church members would place football before their church. Even today, ECAs (extra curricular activities) often take precedence over mid-week services.

You would think that when God's people experience difficult and discouraging circumstances, they would want to renew the covenants they made with God rather than forget them. Do we not know this grieves the Holy Spirit? Paul wrote, “grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”(Eph. 4:30). If we know we should not do this, why do we do it?

Apparently it is easy for Christians to identify basic problems and the issues associated with them, but they are at a loss as to why they allow ourselves to become involved. However, regardless of continual warnings, believers fall into the same pattern again and again with pastors unable to offer a fool-proof method to keep it from happening.

Being aware of and watching for the onset of spiritual weakening problem are perhaps the best dynamic methods of defense believers have to keep from repeatedly making the same disappointing and damaging mistakes that turns them into part-time Christians. In their secular life, a person may have a part-time job, or they say they do this or that on a part-time basis, but spiritually God never intended for His children to be part-time Christians. A servant is at the disposal of his master all the time, and in the New Testament believers are called servants. When it comes to their relationship to God, He wants them to be alert and available for His service all of the time. Considering the price with which believers were purchased, is that too much for Him to ask? How one answers that question reflects the kind of Christian he is. When will God's people learn that He does not want their ability as much as He wants their availability?