Owning A Home and Owning Your Faith

I've been a home owner for all of 3 weeks now and I've learned something: maintaining a home is a lot of little things here and little things there. If you let the lawn slide for a few weeks soon it's an all day hassle to get it back in shape.  If you don't keep the gutters and ground around the house in shape you're liable to get a flooded basement.  If you don't vacuum...well you get the idea.

Likewise, our spiritual vitality is a lot of little fixes here and there.  If we aren't' careful and don't maintain it, chances are down the road we'll wind up paying big for it...much like that flooded basement or jungle of a lawn.

So in response to this here are 3 ways to make those little fixes as you go:

1. Pray all the time.  One of the points Doug Fields makes in his book 'Refuel' is to always be on the look out for chances to pray.  When your at a stop light, when you're in the shower, before you leave the office, for 5 minutes during your lunch break, etc. Find any time you can to connect with God.

2.  Own your crap.  The more honest you are with yourself about your motivation for sin the better off you are.  Know what your weaknesses, learn to be disciplined, and confess these things to God...see point 1.

3.  Let other people in.  If we want to maintain our relationship with Christ then we need to let other people in on point number 2.  You've heard of the word accountability, this is it.  One of the benefits of being a Christian is the fellowship and accountability we can experience with one another.  So take advantage of this and let people in.

None of these three things are revolutionary.  None of them are the 'new best ways' to maintain your strong spiritual walk.  If anything these are the oldest and least revolutionary ways to do so but they're also the best ways.  Christ set the example for the importance of prayer, repentance, and relationship in the life of a Christian.  We don't need flashy, new ways to connect with God; we need to stick with what has worked forever.