Tag: Submission

Don’t Miss a Day

My phone really doesn’t want me to miss a day.

Apps congratulate us for opening them several days in a row. Games reward us for coming back tomorrow. Fitness and weight-management apps keep track of our consecutive days. Miss one, and the counter may start over.

They’re called streaks, and there is a reason they work. They help form habits. They give us a small sense of accomplishment. And, of course, they keep us coming back to the app. None of that is necessarily bad.

But I wonder if all this streak-building is also training us to think that consistency is the same thing as relationship.

It isn’t. And that matters when we open our Bibles.

A streak can tell you whether you did something. It cannot tell you why you did it – or what happened while you were there.

You can read your Bible every morning. You can complete the assigned chapters. You can check the box. You can watch the number on your Bible app climb from 30 days to 100 days to 365 days. And you can do all of that without really communing with God.

God warned His people through Isaiah:

“This people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me.”
– Isaiah 29.13

The problem wasn’t that they were doing nothing religious. They were. The problem was that their outward activity had become disconnected from their hearts.

That danger hasn’t disappeared. We can become very disciplined at doing Christian things without paying much attention to the God those things are supposed to draw us toward.

That doesn’t make habits bad. Discipline matters. There will be mornings when discipline gets you out of bed and into the Word when you don’t particularly feel like doing it. There is something good about developing habits that regularly put us in places where our hearts can be shaped by God’s truth.

But the habit is not the goal. 

God is.

Imagine measuring your closest relationships by streaks. Talked to my wife today. Another day completed. Streak intact.

Something about that immediately feels wrong. I don’t want merely to maintain contact with my wife. 

I want to know her. Listen to her. Talk with her. Share life with her. A relationship is more than repeated interaction.

When we open the Bible, there is a Person there whom we are seeking to know. God has spoken.

So the question isn’t simply, Did I read my Bible today There are better questions:

Did I listen? 

Did I believe what God said? 

Did I allow His Word to correct my thinking? 

Did I submit myself to what He said? 

Did I come to Scripture because I wanted to know Him – or merely because I didn’t want to miss a day?

Don’t confuse consistency with communion.

Keep the habit. Build the discipline. Read your Bible every day. But don’t settle for the streak.

Don’t open your Bible tomorrow merely because you opened it today.

Open it because there is a God you need to know, hear, trust, and walk with.

Guarding the Unity of the Church

“…eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” – Ephesians 4:3

People leave churches for different reasons. Sometimes that happens in a healthy and God-honoring way. At other times, it does not. Most of the time, people do not leave all at once. They drift. Little by little, influences and opportunities begin to pull them away from the life and unity of the church.

Scripture calls us to think carefully about the nature of the church. God has not designed His people to live in isolation, nor to create parallel or competing expressions of church life. He gathers His people into visible, accountable communities that are shepherded by recognized leaders, shaped by His Word, and marked by unity.

Because of that, we should be thoughtful when invitations or opportunities arise, especially those that exist outside the life and accountability of a local church, or that begin to function as a parallel influence on our direction, doctrine, or spiritual growth. This can take many forms: independent gatherings, loosely connected Bible studies, online voices that begin to shape our thinking, or groups that function without clear shepherding or accountability.

Not every invitation is helpful. And not every gathering is wise to join.

Wisdom asks simple questions:
– Is this drawing me closer to the life of my church, or subtly away from it?
– Is this reinforcing the teaching and leadership God has placed over me or competing with it?
– Is this strengthening unity or introducing confusion?

Christ loves His church. He gave Himself for her. And the unity He creates is not maintained by accident, it is guarded through conviction, clarity, and a faithful commitment to the church He died for.

Guard the unity Christ has given by remaining faithfully committed to a biblical church, and by being wise and careful when that commitment is challenged or changed.