See, a lot of folks wait for, long for, yearn for God to change their lives in an instant: a divine ZAP! that saves souls, heals addictions, and restores relationships.
And there are times when God does just that. Many people I know came to faith and even were delivered from addictions in a decisive encounter. The kind of moment that, as we said throughout the recent series, redefines all the moments to come.
Yet I have also seen people for whom that longing for THE MOMENT is merely an avoidance strategy to keep them from embracing the daily disciplines of faithful, unselfish living.
My friends in recovery programs call it a “spiritual bypass”: when people needing sobriety want a single prayer that will forever remove the compulsion to drink. The reality of recovery, however, is far different. There’s a reason there are twelve steps and not one, just as there is a reason one of the affirmations of the program is one day at a time.
Which is true of the Christian life. One day at a time. Dying to self. Opening the Scripture. Praying that word back to God. Living faithfully even when you don’t feel the spirit.
Recognizing that God is as much about the daily as he is the dramatic.
When you commit to that, when you live like that, you develop spiritual momentum that becomes even more defining than dramatic moments.