The Key to Keep From Falling Away From Christ

When I got serious about serving Christ at right around twenty years old, I prayed, "Lord make me want to pray and make the Bible come alive." It didn't take long before the Lord answered both requests. That first year I worked at becoming disciplined in prayer, bible study, and evangelism. Disciplines are addictive, and something like prayer and Bible study, if pursued with diligence, will feed the soul, fill the spirit, and quench the heart in such a way that spiritual hunger pangs soon result if the diet is forsaken. I was witnessing to everybody and experiencing a joy in being used by the Spirit, a joy far surpassing anything from my hedonistic years. And not only prayer, Bible study, and evangelism, there was fellowship. And, I do not mean the "sitting in a pew on Sunday only to act like everyone else during the rest of the week" fellowship, but truly the "clap your hands, laugh yourself silly, walk together, overthrow the deeds of the devil" fellowship.

The first lesson that I learned was that nobody who consistently practiced the disciplines of prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and evangelism fell away from the Lord. These practices didn't earn God's favor, but allowed the grace of God to strengthen and encourage the new believer to grow strong enough to resist the flesh and defeat the evil one. Later on, I was filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it only empowered me more to practice these disciplines. A few months later I received my call to preach the gospel. That was 28 years ago, its been a great ride. I've had a few tough times. But never, never, have I thought about turning back. I thank God that early on in my walk I learned the importance of prayer, bible study, fellowship with believers, and evangelism.

In the last days, the scriptures states that there will be a great falling away among believers. The reason for that is because so many have never learned the disciplines of the faith. What about you? Are you praying? Are you feeding from God's Word daily? Are you connected to believers in the body of Christ in intimate fellowship? Are you sharing Christ with others?

If you are not, pray now that God will help you to begin to practice these things daily. I promise you your faith and your very life will come alive and you too will come to the place that falling away from Christ won't even be a option.

-Pastor Randy