Reconnecting After a Season of Drift: 10 Goals to Get Reconnected to God!
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The day came that you thought would never come as a new believer. You assumed the love in your heart would remain forever. Waking up to realize you were failing in your faith. You’re not as passionate about Jesus as you were when you first believed.
You haven’t touched a Bible in weeks. You seldom pray, and when you do, it feels meaningless. Are you even sure God hears you anymore? Your relationship with God is off balance. You’re feeling increasingly anxious and spiritually drained.
Turning to Christ from the dark is the most essential decision a believer can make. Nothing else alters your life like this.
In their brokenness, people turn to Christ. When you first became a Christian, you were so excited and fulfilled that you couldn’t imagine ever leaving that relationship. But you did. So, how do you reconnect with God again?
Life in the dark?
You don’t know what’s happened. You’re in the dark. My friend, you have entered spiritual drift. Maybe you are enduring Intense seasons that require extreme joy!
As a new Christian, you can’t get enough of the Lord – you read the Bible daily, pray all the time, and you can’t stop talking about your faith.
Everything looked new and wonderful. Hope was alive in your heart. You never felt so transformed from a life of misery to a life of wholeness in Christ.
Somehow you’re not close like before. Jesus doesn’t feel as close as before.
The Bible doesn’t have the same excitement it did at the beginning. You’re slipping back into old habits you thought you’d left behind.
How can this be? What’s going on? What’s changed in your life since you became a believer? When did this happen and how did I not see it until now? Why does the love you once felt now feel so far away?
What is Spiritual drift?
Spiritual drift is a spiritual sickness that can sneak up on you if you’re not careful. Drift happens when you take your eyes off Jesus. It creeps in when you are not totally focused on Him and His love for you.
When the world comes into focus and that focus fills your heart full of the world’s cares, spiritual drift is on the horizon.
If you left a spiritual door open, the enemy can freely walk in and spiritual drift follows like a thief in the night. Sneaking up on you, with you none the wiser until you’re so far off course you don’t even know how you got there.
You can’t recall when you allowed it in, you’re not even sure what event in your life started the spiral to drifting off course.
Was it because of someone in the family passing away last year? Struggling to make ends meet or feeling blue from all the social distancing? Have you been so busy taking care of everyone else, you forgot about yourself? You do a lot for other people, but have you looked after yourself? Don’t give up yet, friend.
There’s still hope. Spiritual drift is not your final destination. The Christ you adore is still here. His promises to you stay forever. Growing in your faith and reconnecting with God is a process.There are clear paths to restoring that first love. Drift is just a season you can come back from and get back on track.
We don’t realize the season of drift until we’re way off course, like a ship on the sea. Every bit of drift pushes it further away. But Jesus Christ is your HOLY COAST GUARD, and HE has GPS. He knows exactly how to bring you back to port and the directions to get there.
Let’s get you reconnected.
Reconnecting with God and His love
Guilt and shame are like shackles from the past. They were acquaintances from your old life that don’t fit into your new life with Christ. They’ll tell you can’t come back to Christ. That’s all just lies from the past.
God saw you come close, and He saw you drift away. But He knew you would. Just remember, He’s your guy, He’s got your back, He’s your Lord and Savior and you belong to Him. Nothing of His ever escapes His hand.
He knew this spiritual drift was coming long before you ever did. He’s been calling for you every day while you’ve been gone. Nothing in this life will stop Him from pursuing you. He won’t give up, no matter what. You are His beloved and His love for you is everlasting. He wants you to know this from His word.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love… grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
Ephesians 3:17-18
God’s love for you doesn’t depend on who you are or what you’ve done. He totally and completely loves you because of who He is.
You drifted because you took your eyes off Him. You stopped looking at Him and started looking at the world, yourself, your fears, screw-ups, and weaknesses.
Trust His love for you again without the guilt and shame. He laid down his life for that. There is nothing to feel shame or guilt over. He’s calling out to you. Come to Him. He has established you in His love.
Reconnect with Prayer
Prayer is a perfect way to re-establish your relationship with God. Prayer is also the #1 way of reconnecting after spiritual drift. Not the long, drawn-out religious prayer. No, just a simple heart to heart with God. Just a conversation of the heart to Him about your relationship with Him.
God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what is in your heart. He knows the simple things of the mind and heart. Just release them to Him in prayer.
Repent for drifting, admit you strayed, took your own way, left His watchful care and loving touch. Say it to Him in prayer in any way you need. He already knows your heart.
If you come to God with faith and an open heart, He will answer your prayers. You will know in your heart that He heard you. You’ll sense the peace and calm only He can provide.
Prayer is just a conversation, a gentle, non-threatening conversation that you have with God. Pour your heart out to Him. Tell Him everything just like you would your best friend. He is the best friend you could ever have.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 says,
“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:12-13
God hears you no matter what state you are in. Seek Him with all your heart to get back to His presence.
Spiritual drift requires reconnecting with God if you want to pick up the broken pieces and start growing in your faith again. Call out to Him, He knows where you are spiritually, and He will hear and He will answer.
Reconnect with the Word
The word of God is your anchor. It is what built the entire universe and all creation. The Word of God is the most alive book you will ever read.
Drift causes you to see it as boring. But that is a lie. The Bible is full of mystery and wonder. It contains stories of excitement and death. It goes from God’s amazing feats to everyday stuff.
The Word of God is your lifeline on how to live this life. The Bible shows us who God is. You will learn His character through the Word. You will see the revelation of Himself to His people.
All throughout the Bible, you see God’s holiness, faithfulness, grace, power, and love for us.
You will always see Him be the same unchanging God. That means that He will never change His mind about you or His love for you. God set that. No amount of drift will change that.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 tells us that the scripture is
“profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.”
2 Timothy 3:16–17
It says that this same Word equips you and completes you for every good work.
Reconnecting with God through a regular habit of reading His word is so important because it helps you to grow in maturity as a Christian. It will equip you to do the call on your life that will bring Him glory and honor.
Reading the Bible is also a spiritual discipline. If you struggle and lack desire connecting to it, ask God to give you a desire for His word again.
He will, and He wants you to enjoy His book. He will help you build the time in your day to return to a daily schedule with the Bible. Allow Him to help you create a plan and schedule that honors Him.
When you are drifting from the Word, you are drifting from the instruction manual for life. This is the only book that is active and alive when you read it.
It gives life to those who are spiritually dead. It awakens the soul to new life in Christ and heals the broken emotions of the heart. No other book on earth has this quality or power.
It is the only book that contains all the answers you will ever need.
Here is an interesting fact. Did you know that the book of Proverbs contains over 180 different types of people in that book of the Bible? That is a lot of answers for just about every type of situation one may find in life.
The Bible is a book that speaks to every generation. It never changes its meaning with time. The Word of God judges all men righteously and causes us to be accountable to the everlasting God that will never fail us.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:25,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
Matthew 24:25
The Word of God is your key to absolute truth. Come back to it again with fresh eyes. See what you didn’t see before through His eyes.
Reconnect with Church
The Body of Christ is special. There is not another group of people on the earth like His body. Jesus is coming back for His bride, the Body. He wants you to be a part of that.
Let me share a great scripture with you.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”
I Corinthians 12:12-18
This verse is powerful because it tells us that all of us belong to one body. We all belong together and need each other. The physical body is not made up of one part. It tells you and me that if one part of you hurts, all the body hurts.
See, you are that special to God and to the Body of Christ. You are needed there and when you are not there, we all suffer. We feel the loss of your presence, love, and gifts. You are needed in whatever role or gifting you have. You are needed in His Body.
He placed you in the Body for a reason. Come back to His loving Body and be your part. If you are not there, the Body is lacking.
10 Goals for reconnecting after spiritual drift
Remember this, dear friend, you are never too out of reach for God. You can never be too far gone. Drift is temporary when you have a God that will chase you down and love you back to His arms and protection.
Here are some things you can do, goals you can aspire to that will keep your connection with God strong and you growing in your faith.
- Accountability partner. Find a good accountability partner or someone that you can share your life struggles with. Everyone needs someone sometimes. This needs to be a person with a listening ear and heart towards you. When your old life calls, you can reach out to this person with truth and honesty and see what you can’t see.
- Church attendance. Try to get into the habit of having a regular routine on church days. Find a great prayer service that meets mid-week that you can attend. Get involved in church. Make friends and find where you fit in the Body.
- Bible study. A weekly bible study does wonders to help you grow as a believer. There may be several types in your church. Find one that works for you and attend. Bring a paper Bible and take notes. You will learn more that way.
- Talk with the pastor. Set up a meeting with the pastor or other spiritual leader to talk with them about your struggles. You will find that once upon a time they had struggles too. They will help you see better how to navigate those times of drift that may come again and how to overcome them.
- Devotional book. A devotional book is a great way to set a daily habit of reading the word of God with inspiring stories of hope, love, and encouragement in your faith.
- Quiet time. Quiet time with God, unplugging from the world, does wonders for your spirit and causing drift to leave. There is nothing better than God speaking to you in times of quiet and stillness.
- Prayer walks. Prayer walks with God help you reconnect with God and with nature. Take a walk and see the wonder He created. It clears your head and heart as you walk and just talk to Him.
- Give up. Give up the thing or things that caused you to drift in the first place. Make a point to just leave them at the feet of Jesus. Give up any and all sin. Let go of all distractions from people or other things.
- The world. Put things of the world in their proper place. There is a lot that can distract you, so make sure you know what those things are: work, self, lust, entertainment, success, busyness, etc.
- Determination. Be determined to just simply obey the word of God at all costs. No matter what you face, obey in your heart the instructions of the Lord.
Conclusion
Navigating painful emotional struggles sometimes brings on spiritual drift. No matter the reason, these tough seasons require complete trust in God. With each step you take, the drift and heaviness in your spirit will lessen.
God won’t abandon you. God won’t allow you to be defeated, and He won’t leave you to do it alone. He is not that kind of God who invests in you and then leaves you. He defeated death and rose again so you could have a new life in Him, today, yesterday and forever!
Stop the drift. Restore your faith in God today. You are not alone, my friend. God is with you and so am I. If this spoke to you today, share it with a friend and don’t forget to share on social media to help someone else. Leave us a comment below and let us know how we can pray for you today.
