Routines for Routines Sake

God would often disrupt my routine when I was trying to be the nice little Christian that the church wanted me to be. Just when I was in full swing with the weekly prayer meeting, and the early morning prayer meeting, God suddenly stopped me from going. I began to doubt the scriptural soundness of the prayers of myself and the other people.

I would often wince when I heard Christians pray “Oh Lord give us faith” or “Lord heal so-and-so” or “Lord save so-and-so”. I knew that these kind of prayers did not work. They displayed a lack of depth of understanding. I realize also that I was mostly always praying in other tongues. What was I praying? I could be praying for absolutely anything, or absolutely nothing!

I felt that it was time to stop praying in other tongues for a while, well certainly decrease the intensity. I felt that it was time to grow in understanding instead. It was time for me to plead my case with the Lord, talk things over with Him in order to resolve my issues once and for all.

Sometimes I would be getting ready to go to church on a Sunday morning, when God would tell me that He didn’t want me to go to church. I would think it was the devil and I would go about my way preparing to go to church. But if God didn’t want me to go, then I couldn’t go. I remember one time I insisted to the Lord that I was going to go to church, but I couldn’t move. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move, I was rooted to the spot. I also remember another time when I was in the bathroom rushing my teeth whilst arguing about going to church. Suddenly, God threw me to the floor – gently, mind you! I suppose you could say that it was at that moment that I knew God had won the argument!

I would find though that when something like this would happen, it would be for a good reason. Usually, the Lord would have a powerful message for me - a message that would be more personal and relevant for me.

I am not saying that Christians should rebel and not go to church, I’m not saying that. But I believe that the Lord was encouraging me to think for myself. By that I mean be led by the Spirit of God for myself instead of constantly having to be shepherded by other people. We should follow the Great Shepherd for ourselves whenever possible.

We get so rigid with our rituals and routines, that we often do things that we shouldn’t be doing, we often do things just for the sake of it, just because other people expect us to do them. With anything in life you have to ask yourself “Why am I doing this?” and “What do I expect to achieve by doing this?” No-one in the secular business world will do something without first asking themselves these questions. The Bible says that if we do something without faith then it is a sin. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23).

Our time on this Earth is short. Whatever we do we must ensure that we are convinced that what we are doing is the right thing. Too often in the church we have a pot-luck kind of attitude that just gives something a go and hopes for the best, without us really being certain of the outcome. Prayers which are prayed with such an attitude will never bear fruit for us or anybody else. God may tend to have mercy on a new convert, but He expects more from mature Christians. Therefore, as soon as God revealed to me that I wasn’t really sure of what I was praying in the weekly prayer meeting then it was time for me to take a pit-stop to re-assess the situation.