SLOW FADE
Many of the sports we play involve round objects we hit, kick, drive or dribble. A lot of men my age prefer golf. The objective of golf is to a hit a little ball into a little hole from half-way around the world. Personally, I find golf more an exercise in frustration than an enjoyable game.
My personal game of choice is basketball. With basketball, you have a much larger ball, get as close as you want to the hole, and stuff it if you can jump high enough to do so.
This basketball looks normal, but it has developed a problem. It doesn’t bounce like it once did. Instead, it now hits the ground with a big thud. Without a push from an outside source, it is content to sit there. You can’t tell by looking at it, but over time my basketball has gone flat, it's slowly faded in being effective. I can’t name a specific point when it lost its bounce. The problem is the basketball leaks and the solution is quite simple. I simply take out my air pump and periodically refill it.
What is true for this basketball is also true for us as Christians. We all have times when there’s a bounce in our step, but over time something has changed. You probably can’t point to a specific event that you begin to fade and the air went out of your Christian step, but your spiritual life has gone flat. We have the same problem as the basketball -- we leak, we slowly fade in our effectiveness and what we were created for! Mediocrity is rarely the result of a single blowout, but more often it's an unnoticeable slow leak or fade. [show ppt of “Slow Fade” by Casting Crowns]
So how do we get our bounce back into our step? How do we change that dull thud into a high flying bounce? Instead of rolling away from God’s heavenly court, we draw nearer to God and let Him "fill us" with His presence. “Be continually being filled.” (Eph 5:18b). How? By periodically refilling by drawing near to Him, keeping a short list of sins by confessing our sins, through prayer, by studying God’s Word, and by remaining in fellowship.
Growing Deeper,
Pastor Dan
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