Struggling To Read Your Bible And Pray? Wrestling With Doubt? WATCH THIS | ask Theocast

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One of the questions we get a lot at Theocast is related to people's spiritual health.

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They don't feel like reading, they don't feel like praying, frankly, they don't feel like doing anything spiritual.

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They are spiritually dry and empty. And here's the question, what do I do?

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Many question their salvation. Am I truly a believer? How can I be a Christian, and I don't want to pray, and I don't want to read my

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Bible, and I don't want to go to Bible studies? I don't even really want to listen to a podcast. Like, what's wrong with me?

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Well, first of all, we've been programmed to think that the

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Christian life starts at zero, and then it just starts getting better, and we grow and grow and grow, and we have more energy and more excitement, and we have better experiences, and Jesus becomes more and more precious to us.

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And so it's a climb that it kind of goes up and down a little bit, but it's never worse than it was before.

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And some of you can even express that. There are times when, man, you are on a super high moment where Jesus was the most important thing to you ever, and now you feel like he's in a completely other universe.

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Well, first of all, that is a normal experience for a Christian. If you've ever read the

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Psalms, there are times where David cried out and said, where are you? We all go through these moments because of two really important truths.

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Your flesh is still there. It still barks out at you. As a matter of fact,

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Paul says our spirit is at war with our flesh, and our flesh with our spirit. What that means is that there are times our spirit wins, and we feel that joy and closeness and excitement, and we feel that steadiness within Christ.

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And then there are other times temptation gets the better of us, and we give in, and our flesh is strong, and it unfortunately wins out over the spirit, and we're warned against that happening.

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It could happen so much so that Galatians 6 .1 says that we need brothers and sisters around us to come and to restore us because we are entangled in sin.

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It could be that you're in sin. It could be there's something you need to repent of. It could be something has trapped you.

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It could also be that you aren't in a context where the gospel is being preached to you.

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You're receiving the sacraments. You're being reminded of the Lord's table physically, and you are tasting and seeing

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Christ. It could be that you're not in a church where you're being built up, where Paul says to consider how to build one another up to love and good works, or Hebrews where it says, consider how to encourage one another that you are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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That could also be the case. My encouragement to you is take an assessment. Are you in a context of a church that is really preaching to you the gospel?

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If not, go find one. It's like eating ramen noodles every single day and asking yourself,

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I just don't feel good. What's wrong with me? Well, you might need to find a place where you can get some good food, and this is true of us as it relates to our spiritual nourishment.

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So ultimately, if you don't have a church that's caring for you and looking after you, this could be the place that you need to start.

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If you are in a good church, have you confessed this to anybody? Have you told them? Have you found somebody that you can go to and say, man,

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I need to find the joy of my salvation again. It is not there. The last thing

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I'm going to say to you is that some type of habitual prayer and Bible reading is not the watermark of the

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Christian life. That is not what determines whether you're doing well or not. As a matter of fact, I'm just going to point you to what

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Paul says is the watermark of the Christian life. In Ephesians 4, he says, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, and he says, with all meekness, gentleness, and humility, be eager to maintain the bond of peace.

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Christians should be patient and meek and gentle. That's the watermark of Christianity. Don't let people fool you into thinking that certain habits are the way in which you should determine whether you're a good

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Christian. Go love your brothers. Go be patient with your sisters. Care for the body, and if you're doing that well, you should be encouraged.

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That's the power of the Spirit working within you. Hopefully you find this encouraging. Please leave us a comment below if you have any questions or any follow -up thoughts.