The Thrill Is Gone

The thrill is gone
It's gone away from me
The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away from me
Although I'll still live on
But so lonely I'll be

Rick Darnell & Roy Hawkins

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

I've heard a phrase said many times in my life.  Sometimes I have said it.  Sometimes I have pontificated on it's meaning.  Other times, I yearned for it.  I now repent of this phrase and letting it define my spiritual growth in Christ.  The phrase in question......."I want to be on fire for Christ!"  When I first came to faith, my passion yearned to know God.  After a period, I didn't feel that sort of passion anymore.  The thrill was gone.  I was even told this was normal.  I remember going to church and singing at the top of my lungs and doing all the things that good little pentecostals do at church during the exceedingly long "praise" time.  I got the "God goosebumps".  I attributed that feeling as some sort of divine closeness with Christ.  To me it meant I was growing.  And millions of christians base their spiritual growth according to what they feel or worse, how well they have modified their behavior.  I always wondered if Paul or Peter or John felt this way.  Their words certainly didn't show it.  Here are the cold hard facts about the Gospel.  If you're sin is not real, then your Savior is not real.  If you're sin isn't huge, then your Savior isn't huge.  During all those times where I felt nothing, I played a cultural hiding game, hiding the big sins from others and confessing the little sins in public.  If I can't live in the freedom that Christ died to provide, how in the world could I possibly get close to Him?  Now I am not advocating sinning by any means.  I am merely stating the obvious.  That we all are dreadful sinners in dire need of a huge Savior, that not only has purchased us freedom on the cross but gives us a renewing grace every day.  There is no condemnation for those in Christ!  Furthermore, in regards to worship, I had it all wrong.  David says it best in psalm 5:16, 17

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

   you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

A right sacrifice to God is a broken and contrite heart!  If I am playing a cultural hiding game with my sin, how can expect to have a broken heart over it?  If I am judging my spiritual growth on how little I sin, then I've reduced Jesus to a behavior modelist.  And If I am judging Christ's proximity to me in regards to how I feel at the moment, then I'm never going to be free and I am never going to live the life Christ intended for me!  He loves us and He knows our sins.  He has forgiven us.  Why would we allow Satan to tempt us into believing anything else?

Here is what I know.  God didn't redeem his people to live in bondage to either sin or their feelings.  His faithfulness and mercy are continually poured out on His people.  Faith is not and should not be about emotions!  It should be based in the fact that your very real Savior, the lover of your soul, has already forgiven you for your sin and is with you at all times.  Do not base your spiritual growth on fleeting emotions but on the fact of God's redeeming love.  We are the bride of Christ.  He hasn't gone anywhere and He will not leave us.  What he has done though, is laid out his expectations of us.  Our first priority in life is service to God.  Seek ye first His kingdom!  That means more than throwing up a quick "Thank ya, J for this day.  Be with me" prayer in the morning and reading a 15 minute devotion!  If we loved Him as much as we ought to or want to, then why wouldn't we make every thing we do centered around him?  You would certainly spend more time with your spouse than that.  Seek ye first, His Kingdom!  Then and only then will you see true spiritual growth in your life.  The thrill will not be gone.  And so lonely you will not be!  

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.'But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:10-14