I want you to take just a moment and answer this question. Perhaps you might even make a list of the things you do that you consider meaningful. Now, having made that list let me pose another question, "Which of these things that you consider meaningful REQUIRES Gods presence to be accomplished?" In other words, what do you consider meaningful that really doesn't necessitate any major step of faith or any amazing act of God to accomplish? Perhaps what I am really asking is this, "Is it time for us to completely reevaluate what we consider meaningful and align that idea with what God considers meaningful?" If there is one thing that is consistently praised throughout Scripture it is faith (Matt. 8:10; 9:2; Luke 7:50; Rom. 5:1; Eph. 1:15-16; Heb. 11). Respectively, if there is one thing that is condemned throughout Scripture it is a lack of faith (Matt. 17:19-20; Mark 6:5-6; 1 Tim. 4:1).
Now this is where things get a little tricky. Is it possible that there are things on your list that you consider meaningful, and that necessitate God, which you really never expect God to be present to help you accomplish? Here are some examples. We all pray, and we know that prayer necessitates God, but how many times do we pray expecting God to be present, attentive, and working at the very moment we pray? We are called to share the Gospel, and we know that the Holy Spirit must speak through our witness, but how many times do we share the Gospel not really thinking that God needs to be involved in this work? We all read the Bible, and we know that the Holy Spirit illumines us to understand the text, but how often do we read without asking God to speak to us, teach us, convict us, and conform us to His Son by revealing Himself to us in our reading? The point that I want to make is this: We all do "spiritual" things that we, and God, consider meaningful never really expecting God to be present. We pray, share the Gospel, read the Bible, and perform a host of other "spiritual" tasks without faith in God actually working while we are doing the very thing that we consider meaningful.
Life is too short to waste doing things that have no purpose, and the danger for followers of Christ is getting trapped in the mindset that they are doing something meaningful, when in reality they are not doing anything meaningful because they aren't completely dependent on God. Prayer, evangelism, and Bible study are meaningless without a dependence upon Christ. It is time that believers break away from the tradition of doing what has always been done and the routine of doing what they have always done to pursue an intimate, thriving, faith-filled life in Christ.
