We’re all seeking that deep spiritual experience. We all say we desire intimacy with God. Most of us want to spend our lives serving him whether in full time ministry or in in the market place. However, all of us are struggling with something in common, deepening our relationship with God.

Often people will ask (since I’m at Bible College) how I’m doing, how’s my “prayer life”? Like a lot of Christians I’m great at coming up with comments that go around the questions or sometimes outright lying about the health of my relationship with God.

When it comes to my relationship with God, the thing I’ve found I’m best at is making excuses.

I’ve found that I create excuses about my prayer life and why I’m not receiving answers from God. Sometimes some of these excuses might even be valid, but I realized there was something I was holding back. “Well maybe I need to just ask him again.” “It’s probably not God’s timing.” Sometimes I even think to myself… “I just need to pray more intensely” so I work up emotions as I pray as if that will finally get God to respond.

I make excuses about why the Holy Spirit is not as evident in my life as it should be. “Right now the Holy Spirit is just showing himself in the small ways in my life.” “I am waiting on God to give me gifts, I prayed, now it is in his court.”

I make excuses about why I haven’t been reflecting on God’s word lately. “I’m in Bible College, I read so much about the Bible already.” “I’ve been busy doing ministry.” “Church on sunday was so good it filled me up for the whole week.”

What I realized is the reason I make those excuses is because I’m afraid to confront problems in my life, the real hidden things that are holding me back and keeping me from going deeper into a growing relationship with Christ.

So the main thing I realized that I was making excuses about, but was fearful to confront, was that I was and still am struggling with (though getting much better about) praying for my will to be done, desiring the Holy Spirit so that I could achieve my will, I wasn’t reflecting on the Bible because it wasn’t my will to.

What I am actively working on is focusing on His will. Praying for what we want is not an issue as long as our will is aligned with his. If we want God to give affirmative responses to our prayers, then we have to start praying things that aligns with his will.

We must confront our egotistical mindset and begin focusing on the heavenly Father’s will and let our lives become about having His will be done (Ephesians 5:17).

Now focusing on your will may not be the thing or only thing you are covering up with excuses, so spend time in prayerful and honest consideration of what you might doing to keep you from growing in your relationship with Christ. A lot of times those “hidden things” are actually not hidden to everyone else. When you start making changes, you are likely to hear people comment about how they have noticed the change. So be vulnerable, ask trusted friends what could be holding you back in your relationship with God.

If you are not in a consistently growing and deepening relationship with Christ then you need to figure out what you are holding onto, what you are hiding. Complacency is a scary thing, so don’t be complacent, be honest and critical about your spiritual life.

About Brandon Maddux

Brandon Maddux has published 10 posts on this blog..

I am currently studying Biblical Studies at Life Pacific College, the intern to the Children's Pastor at my home church, The Sanctuary Church and working for Kidology.org. I pray that my life is lived in obedience to God's command to "Get Moving!" (Exodus 14:15).

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