Foul Weather Believers

If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. 2 Timothy 2:3

We have seen it with others, and have probably done the same thing ourselves.  When everything is going well we get “busy” and don’t have much time for God. Yet, let some tragedy or illness or anything earth-shattering enter our lives and we all run to God.

Over and over again this occurs in the Old Testament regarding the people who God is making into a great Jewish Nation. The people of Israel were going about their lives worshiping idols instead of the Living God. They were sinning in every way imaginable. Then the Midianites or Amalekites or some other “ites” attacked them and they went running back to The One True God for His help. He had mercy on them and delivered them. Then they put Him out of their mind and went back to worshiping foreign gods again.

It is easy to judge those early Jewish people. We read about them and shake our heads thinking how crazy they were to forget their God. And yet, while we may not forget God, too often we take Him off of the center stage of our life once the calamity is over, then we get “busy again” with other things.

One thing I have learned from years of illness is that I never want to be far from God, not on the bad days or good days. Yet I recognize how easy it is when the pressure of illness is off for a while to get focused upon other things that in the long run are not of any real value.

The more miserable we are, the better believers we often are. It is a crazy quirk of human nature. We all have a bit of attention deficit disorder when it comes to God. We lose focus and get distracted by every shiny thing that comes our way until the pressure of pain and suffering refocuses our priorities once again upon the Lord.

I don’t want to live my life as a foul weather Christian.  Some ways we can avoid that is to have set times for reading the Bible and devotions. The same thing with prayer. I often begin and end my day with prayer. Yet much of the time I have prayers going up throughout the day, often praying out loud. So much so my wife often thinks I’m talking to her from the other room. I’m no super saint as anyone who knows me well can tell you. I have a substantial list of faults and weaknesses. Rather, I have developed a habit of relying upon God over many years through too many difficulties to list.

Fellow Believer, you do not want to wait until the roof comes crashing in to grow in your relationship with God. Begin today to set down deep roots of faith by spending time with Jesus. A foundation built upon the Lord will make you strong in your Christian life and when the floods come you will not be swept away. Running to God is a good idea when troubles come.  A better idea is to be standing close to Jesus no matter what the weather brings your way.

Prayer, Dear Lord, forgive us for too often being foul weather Christians who only run to you when hardships come our way. Please help us in our troubles, and be with us in our joys as well. Amen.