 Why don't you feel on fire for God anymore? I think most of us can look back at when we first got saved and see the excitement that was flowing out of us. We're excited to read God's Word. We would get lost in the Scriptures. We would pray and it would be effortless. We would just spend time and minutes and hours talking to God and it felt free and it felt easy. But then life got busy and we started feeling ourselves drift away and maybe there's been seasons of ups and downs where some seasons you're so excited to read the Word and serve and share the gospel and then there's other seasons where you're just like oh my goodness am I even a Christian because I this stuff seems like such a chore like actually living this life out for Jesus following Jesus daily just seems like so much work and I don't feel like I don't feel in it you know what I'm saying and so you know today I want to talk about a little bit of why that happens okay so first it's important to realize that feelings can't be our primary indicator to see if we're on the right path. The reality is is that even though sometimes I might not feel on fire for God I may be faithfully following him daily and other times I might feel on fire for God and yet I might be neglecting his commands. Feelings are not a good barometer of strong faith so I don't want to put out this idea that feelings aren't an important part of walking as a Christian they are they really are I'm just saying that they're not they they ought not be our primary indicator of strong faith they're not the first thing that we should go to to see okay am I living for God how am I doing here how's my fruit it's like no feelings aren't the first place we go but they are an important aspect of living life so I don't want us to be emotionally suppressing ourselves or suppressing our emotions that's not a good thing either now that that's out of the way there may be legitimate things that get in the way of our relationship with God and are causing you to be lukewarm in your day to day faith so let's get into some of those unconfessed sin is the first one here now on the surface this may seem obvious but the problem is is that we've often seared our consciences to the point where we don't recognize sin as sin the key here is to reevaluate our day to day lives the things that we've put into our routine that we've seen as normal that we've allowed you know this is okay and this is okay I can watch this I can listen to this what are those things that you've let in that you need to reevaluate we need to begin to identify hidden sins that have perhaps gone unnoticed then we confess them this day to day discernment creates an active disciple of Christ rather than a passive one because here's the truth you are either going closer in your relationship with Christ or you are growing further and further away from him and when we let sins creep into our lives we're letting the devil get a foothold okay the second thing that may be getting in the way of your relationship with God or being on fire for him is discouragement so most of us can recall a time where we felt super on fire for God and things are going well and we have a specific mission or plan that we want to accomplish I've been there I'm a kind of a big picture guy I love to dream up things that oh we could make this film or create this brand or you know conduct this like evangelism mystery or something like I love to think about ideas like that and when I was a teenager that was a that was a huge thing just lots of dreams and yet sometimes we're met with disappointment I know I've been met with disappointment of having this grand dream that seemed to be good and yet God didn't bring it to fruition and it's confusing when we know or at least we think our hearts in the right place and yet God didn't bring our plan mission or goal to fruition it almost causes us to question whether we should pursue further kingdom building at all maybe you had an encounter with an unbeliever that just went terribly and you feel so discouraged and you're not even sure if you want to go back to evangelism whatever the case is here's what I want you to do get plugged in with community discouragement develops in the dark when we feel alone that discouragement is magnified and multiplied to the point where it overwhelms any thought of getting back into the battle however when we're surrounded by a curious and compassionate community we once again begin to build up the strength necessary to step out of comfort into courage okay so the third thing that may be getting in the way of your relationship with Christ or growing closer with him or being on fire firm however you want to put it is unbelief why would we be on fire for God if we don't believe him well we wouldn't obviously ultimately if we don't believe God if we don't believe his character his mission in his gospel in his power in his love and I could go on we won't be motivated to live for him on a daily basis so how do we fix that you know we in the Christian community and I mean I think humans in general we like quick fixes we want quick programs or verses or statements that can fix the the problem that we see and so when we see kind of our unbelief and it's like okay well I'm having a hard time believing God but I don't really know how to change that I want you to listen to Jesus words here you don't have enough faith Jesus told them I tell you the truth if you had faith and even as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain move from here to there and it would move nothing would be impossible Matthew 17 20 now I don't want you to take this out of context and say that as long as you have a little bit of faith you can make anything happen all by your power I don't know because this doesn't align with the rest of the teachings of the Bible however what I want to emphasize here is the idea that faith as small as a mustard seed is important just having a little bit of faith that Jesus talks about is where we need to begin you see we spend so much time glamorizing this idea of full faith with no doubts or no questions everything is just perfect and we're just like that perfect Christian that just you know you know doesn't struggle really and just has great faith well for most of us that's not the case most of us have questions most of us have doubts but where do we need to begin well we need to begin with that mustard seed size faith and that's enough for now like that's where we begin so if you you feel like okay well I know my unbelief is getting in the way of my relationship with God okay where can I be and well I'm just going to trust him in this this thing okay well can I trust him with my finances I'm gonna work on trusting him with my relationships I'm gonna trust him with my friendships I'm gonna trust him with my work I'm gonna trust him with my salvation I'm gonna trust him with my forgiveness all these things all these aspects as we're beginning to read his word as we're beginning to be in Christian community as we're beginning to grow more and more like Christ we begin to trust him that trust is built because God will prove himself faithful so to sum it all up it's not about feeling on fire for God it's about seeking to live faithfully for him as we repent for sin grow in community and grow in faith feelings come and go but it's our job to put our faith in the one who will never leave us or forsake us thank you so much for watching guys if you're new to this channel my name is Isaac David and this is The Daily Disciple where I help you follow Jesus daily thank you again to everyone on Patreon it is a huge blessing to have you guys supporting me my mission and ministry it's so exciting to have so many of you supporting me over there and if you'd help if you'd like to help support what I'm doing over here at Daily Disciple I'd ask you to help support in the link in my bio and give monthly to what I am doing thank you so much for watching guys and I'll see you later God bless