Have you ever gone away on vacation and then returned home to find some of your houseplants dead? You watered them before you left, but some plants didn’t survive.
If you grow houseplants, then you know the importance of light and water. Healthy plants need water and sunlight. Some houseplants need to be watered at least once a week. African violets, for example, won’t last long without water. You also need to make sure your plants get enough sunlight. You can’t leave plants in the dark and expect they’ll live very long.
People are a lot like houseplants. We have basic needs to stay alive. We need food and water to stay healthy physically. We also have spiritual needs. Two things we need to stay healthy spiritually are worship of God and fellowship with other Christians. We get these spiritual needs when we attend church.
Just as a houseplant thrives when it gets the right amount of water and sunlight, so too, we thrive spiritually, when we attend church regularly. When we don’t go to church, our spiritual lives suffer. Just like a houseplant shrivels up and dies without sunlight and water, so too, our spiritual lives shrivel up when we don’t go to church.
So, if church is vital to your spiritual health, why don’t you go to church? You may not have really given this question much thought, but I want you to think about it now. If you are a Christian but don’t regularly attend church, why?
You probably used to attend church. You may have been very active in your church, but now, you rarely attend. So, I need to ask the question: Why? What is keeping you from going to church on Sundays?
I know. I know. You’re just too lazy, right? Be honest now. If God were the one asking the question, what would you say? Let’s say God is doing an outreach program to get people to come back to church. God decides to call everyone on his membership list. He calls your phone. You answer. After telling you the purpose of his call, God says, “I’ve missed you in church lately.” Then he asks: “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I’m curious, what is keeping you from going to church on Sundays?”
You know God can tell when we’re lying so you tell him the truth. You say: “God, I’m just too lazy. Plain and simple.” Or maybe you would say: “God, church is boring.” Or maybe you’d say: “God, I’ve got more important things to do than worship you.”
God is stunned. Usually, he’s a tough character. He’s been around for a long time, and he’s seen it all, but still, he’s hurt. In fact, his heart is broken. There’s a long pause. Then God thanks you for your honesty, says he hopes to see you soon, and hangs up the phone.
Maybe you’ve never thought about church attendance this way. Maybe you thought going to church was something nice to do but not very important.
It’s not your fault that you think this way. Most churches do a poor job of making church relevant. As a result, most of us don’t see a real need to go to church, but going to church is one of the most important ways to connect with God.
What if we were to dig a little deeper. What if we were to probe this question a little more thoroughly. What would we discover? I suspect we’d find that the problem isn’t that you don’t want to go to church. The real problem is you don’t have a healthy relationship with God. The real problem is you don’t love God as you should. Ouch! The truth hurts.
These two problems: lack of desire to attend church and lack of love for God are related. It’s like a circle where one leads into the other. If your love for God is deficient, you will not want to attend church, and if you don’t attend church your love for God will grow weaker and weaker. It’s like a downward spiral in which you get further and further away from God. This downward spiral leads to a dark hole where God seems to be absent.
How do you climb out of this hole? How can you get back to God? Let me suggest that you start going to a good Bible-believing church where people love God.
But now we’re back to where we started. I know, I know. But this is a good place to start. If you have any questions, post in the comments section and I’ll try my best to help you find a good church where you can connect with God. As you attend church, sing praises to God, pray with other believers, and listen to a message from the word of God, your love for God will grow. Then you’ll begin to experience the freedom and happiness of walking with God day by day. All it takes is waking up on Sunday morning, getting in the car, and driving to church. It may be hard at first, but it won’t be long before going to church on Sunday is a regular part of your life.
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