5 Warning Signs of a Faltering Relationship With God

Here are five warning signs that your relationship with God is faltering.

Prayerlessness

I think everyone’s had a dry season in their lives with periods of prayerlessness, but when these times extend into days and weeks, for some into months, it is a very serious warning that you’re faltering in your relationship with God. Some might feel, God where are you?” But who has moved? Was it God, or was it them? God never changes and is always ready to hear our prayers. But when we stop praying, we are losing that relationship we so desperately need. Imagine not talking to your best friend or spouse for weeks? How would they feel about that? Imagine how God feels when we won’t even take the time to pray to Him?

Avoiding Bible Time

If you had a loved one and were separated from them by many miles and they wrote you letters that you never took the time to open and read, how do you think they would feel about that? Surely they’d be hurt because it would show you didn’t even want to hear what they were saying and that you really didn’t care about them after all. The same goes for the Bible. When we neglect Bible reading, we are neglecting God because you cannot separate the God of the Word from the Word of God. The times when you don’t feel like reading your Bible are the very times that you need to read it the most.

Unconfessed Sin

This sign is most troubling. When we have unconfessed sin, we fall out of fellowship with God. We never lose our relationship, but we can lose our fellowship. The more we sin, the more we need to confess it to God and come clean (1 John 1:9). Sinning has a way of making our hearts grow callous to it. We begin to lose the sensitivity of the conviction of the Holy Spirit as it becomes less and less apparent to us. That only brings more sin because with less conviction when we sin, we grieve the Spirit of God and the more we’re likely to sin again and again.

The World Over the Kingdom

If we grow more and more concerned about our job, our status, and our prosperity than we do the kingdom, this shows that we’re not seeking first the kingdom (Matt. 6:33); we’re seeking our own kingdom first. Whoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God (James 4:4).

Is the Truth Compromised?

It is so easy to rationalize our sin; I know it is for me. If we start doing this, then we are trying to justify our sins like this: “Well, I’m not as bad as so and so, and at least I’m not doing that.” But there is no wisdom in comparing ourselves with others. In fact, it’s a foolish thing to do (2 Cor. 10:12). We are to compare ourselves only with Christ, even though we naturally fall way short (Rom. 3:23). However, He is our pattern of truth, and we cannot compromise on truth. God’s Word is truth, and it never changes.

Conclusion

It’s important to realize when our relationship with God is beginning to falter. There are many more signs than these, but if you’re having times of prayerlessness, neglecting time in the Word, having unconfessed sin on a regular basis, and focusing more on the world than on God, and if you find yourself starting to compromise the truth of God, then it’s time to repent and confess this to God and restore your relationship with God to where it ought to be. That is my prayer for those who read this.