Looking to the past

So I’m starting to put in all my old journal entries from when I really first started changing my life till now. Enjoy!

So I was hanging out with some friends one Friday night and we were discussing our weeks and my buddy Dimetery Stoilofe (yes he's Russian) said "I'm just not as close to God as I us to be. At that moment God gave me this thought, and this is what I told all of them...

I often hear Christians say "o I us to only listen to Christian music pray every day, read the word and just be on fire for the Lord. But right now I just don’t know I just can’t seem to get that close to God again."

"You’re only as close to God now as you want to be"

I have a friend that I’m still praying for named Mike (that’s a fake name for other purposes) and Mike was in a pretty big ministry spot in the church. But he always talked about how there was one point in his life that he was just so close to God and how he us to just listen to Christian music and pray like hours a day. And how he just got to busy and he never said this but I believe he felt that he would never reach that closeness ever again. A year or two later he was burned out and I believe just sick of the whole church and Christian thing and quit his ministry in the church. He now very rarely comes to church and works instead.

So Mike what was wrong with him, what happened? Well I believe one he was not in the word as much or at all and that he put his past relationship on a pedestal so high that he felt he would never be able to reach it again. And it was hindering his growth in the Lord and opened his ears up to the devils lies. For the word says

Phl 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Phl 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
Phl 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The main word here is Strain, we need to strain and push forwards or you won’t grow and you will eventually get burnt out or spiritually dry. Stop talking about how you were so close to the Lord and instead act and strain to and for what the Lord has for you know.

The Webster’s definition of strain

Strain = Difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension

physical strain = deformation of a physical body under the action of applied forces.

(psychology strain)= nervousness resulting from mental stress; "his responsibilities were a constant strain"; "the mental strain of staying alert hour after hour was too much for him"