I was talking with a teammate about changes she’s making in her life and she looked at me and asked “this isn’t church camp, right?”
You know when you go on a retreat, to camp, to a conference and practice some spiritual disciplines for a few days, connect/reconnect with Jesus, etc…
Then when you get back home, you excitedly tell others about some of your experiences and some people listen interestedly and some listen halfheartedly, wanting to see how long your enthusiasm lasts.
Before you know it, life is off to a dizzying pace once again and the retreat, along with new disciplines and habits you began can get pushed aside.
Before you realize it, the retreat was three months ago, a year ago, three years ago, a distant memory. Those skills, disciplines and habits you began and wanted to grow and cultivate, are put on the “maybe another time/season list”.
My response to my teammate was this: This time that we are serving here in Africa, is not church camp. We’re not here for a spiritual high. We’re here learning how to live with Jesus, living surrendered lives, choosing to follow where the Holy Spirit leads. We are learning what it looks like to lean on the Lord until we become established in the Lord. Being loyal to the Lord, not to feelings, becoming rooted in His truth, His word, eternal truth. Ephesians 3:16-19 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
The remainder of this blog is taken from Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-do-spiritual-highs-fade
A house does not fall if its foundation is firm (Matthew 7:25). A tree does not wither when its roots are deep enough to reach water (Psalm 1:1–3). So, when the house of our spiritual life and our war against sin comes crumbling down or withers, we should ask ourselves, “Why?”
The answer is: we are not seeing God. The house falls because the foundation is destroyed or, more accurately, because the foundation is weak.
Jesus warns of those who receive the word of God with gladness, but then fall away because they have no root (Mark 4:16–17). This is the danger that we face. After hearing the word with gladness, how do we go on to produce the fruit of righteousness (Mark 4:20)? How do we cultivate joy in Christ at home, away from the training wheels and spiritual crutches of this community we have made?
The first step is to prepare for war.
Striving to rejoice in the glory of God is an act of rebellion against Satan’s dominion over this world (1 John 5:19), and rebellion against our very own fallen flesh (Romans 3:11). Paul likens us to soldiers in a war, where we are at risk of entangling ourselves in civilian pursuits (2 Timothy 2:4). Therefore, we must put off the false security of an emotionally charged decision and realize that there is a war being waged over our souls.
As John Owen writes, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”
There is a far more intimate connection between our understanding and sight of the truth than most of us realize. Satan’s most insidious method for drawing people away from Christ is blinding them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). The war in the mind is fought by seeing and rejoicing in the truth. It is fought by putting our mind to the task of knowing the Lord more fully. Our desire is to know him and the power of his resurrection so that we may take up our own cross and follow him (Philippians 3:10).
God himself has given very ordinary ways to provide this grace for us: we sing together (Ephesians 5:19), we come together regularly to worship Jesus and to hear his word preached (2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 10:25), to enjoy the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23–26), to pray (Acts 2:42).
Beyond these, there are very practical steps we may take to see more of Jesus. It may mean turning off the television if it clogs our spiritual vision. It may mean taking time to read theology. It may begin with taking time to listen to sermons that further our understanding of the word or taking time to read books that increase our sight of God and taking time to worship and pray and to meditate on the person of Christ.
The bottom line is, do whatever it takes to see Jesus more clearly.
The clearer our vision of a holy God is, the more it drives us to our knees by the sight of our own sin. The clearer our vision of our sin becomes, the deeper is our sight of God’s mercy and grace through Christ. The deeper we understand his mercy and grace, the more we are amazed by the beauty of this God, the Creator of the universe. For “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4).
And as we are amazed by the beauty of God, the more willing we become to take up our cross and lose everything to be with him (Mark 8:34; Philippians 3:8) — troubles and suffering cannot pull us away from the priceless treasure we’ve found (Matthew 13:44–46; Mark 4:17). Therefore, let us “worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness” and press onward to see and to know him in the full array of his majestic beauty (Psalm 96:9; Hosea 6:3).
