A Trickle or a Flood?

Last Saturday I had to work on one of our tractors. After baling some hay a few weeks ago, we had a fuel system problem on our Allis-Chalmers 185. The strainer or sediment bowl that keeps debris in the diesel fuel from reaching the motor was clogged. As we were working on it a few weeks ago we found that parts of the 40 plus year old sediment bowl had deteriorated. We had to order a new one to replace the whole set up and I set out early on Saturday morning to knock out this 30 minute job before it got hot. But, like anything on a farm, things rarely go as planned and take much longer than you expect! I had to drain more than 20 gallons of diesel fuel out of the tank so I could replace the old part. The problem was that to drain out the fuel I had one of two options available to me. I could either take the sediment bowl off and let the fuel come flooding out and hope to catch it in buckets, or I could put a hose on a part of the sediment bowl and allow it to trickle through the blocked fuel line into a hose and into containers. I chose option 2 and in the words of the narrator on Spongebob Squarepants, three...hours...later...I had the fuel finally drained from the tank and replaced the part in 20 minutes. I was able to get other things done during the tedious draining process, but it caused me to repeatedly second guess myself as to whether I should have gone with a trickle or a flood when draining the fuel.

When it comes to our spiritual growth as Christians, we don't have a choice between a trickle and a flood. The only option is a slow, methodical process of growing our spiritual life to a place of maturity. Think about it from this perspective. Our spiritual growth is based on our relationship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ. You cannot rush the development of a relationship in the physical world, so why would we think we could rush the growth of our spiritual relationship with God? We cannot flood ourselves with an intense 2-3 days of reading the bible or spending a bunch of time over a few days in prayer and hope to suddenly be on par spiritually with the late Billy Graham. It doesn't happen that way.

Time is required to grow spiritually mature and to develop your personal relationship with God. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Time is required. In the time it requires for this maturing and development to occur, a few things need to be happening. Here is you a list of the things you need to be doing to grow spiritually mature and to develop your personal relationship with God.

Prayer. Spend time in prayer daily with God. Praise Him. Confess your sins to Him. Thank Him for His provision. Share with Him your needs.

Study your Bible. Get on a daily bible reading plan that fits you. But don't simply read a handful of chapters each day and think that's all you should do. Find unique and creative ways of studying the Bible as you read. Use devotional material that speaks to your situation. 

Worship. Make it a priority to be in your church for worship. If worship in your church is once a week, then be there. If worship is 3 times a week, commit to being there to worship God. Connect with God during worship through the songs, prayers, giving, and the spoken message.

Fellowship. Churches offer many different ways to fellowship together. Some are formal and others are informal. Some are based around meals and others are based on nothing more than good company. Take advantage of opportunities to grow closer to fellow believers.

Service. God gifts every believer for service to Him in His kingdom. Find your unique gifting and find a way to serve Him through your local church. There are plenty of ministries and missions that you can be a part of that will help build up the church.

I can guarantee you with 100% assurance that if you regularly and systematically practice these five disciplines you will grow more spiritually mature and develop a strong relationship with God. There are no two ways about it. If you practice the disciplines that are essential to the Christian faith, you cannot help but accomplish the goals of the faith. Those goals are to grow to spiritual maturity and to develop our relationship with God. And the only way to do this is through a slow, methodical trickle rather than a flood.


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