Sometimes, the signs are small and almost unnoticeable.
You wake up one Monday morning and just realise that your prayers have become shorter than they used to be, or that the curiosity and excitement you once had when opening your Bible is no longer there.
When you look deeper, you see that the quiet moments you once enjoyed are now easily replaced with other things, and before long you begin to sense that something in your walk with God has changed.
Again, this rarely happens all at once. Most times it begins quietly, like a small crack forming in a wall, something that looks harmless at first and easy to overlook if you are not paying attention, yet slowly creating a gap that did not used to be there.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23 (KJV)
The danger is not the crack itself, because of a truth, these moments of weakness can happen to anyone. The real danger is pretending it is not there, or hoping that crack will somehow disappear on its own — when in reality, the longer a crack in a wall is ignored, the wider it becomes and the more it weakens the structure that once was strong.
Our walk with God can be like that too.
However, when we notice a gap or a draw back in our hearts, the answer is not to sit in guilt or spend too much time brooding over how far we may have drifted, but to take the right step quickly and return to the place where our hearts can be restored.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10 (KJV)
I’m always inspired by David because he understood this really well.
He was a man who paid attention to his heart, and whenever he sensed that something within him was going astray, he did not pretend everything was fine or hide from God out of shame.
Instead, he returned with honesty, having conversations with God, asking questions, laying it bare, asking God to search him, cleanse him, and renew the right spirit within him.
What stands out about David is not that he never faltered (oh, he did), but that he never stayed away for too long. He understood that the safest place for a heart that has begun to wander is still the presence of God.
Imagine being called ‘A man after my heart’ by God himself!
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Psalm 51:17 (KJV)
Maybe you have noticed a small crack lately; something ‘minimal’ but real, a sense that your heart has become slightly distant or that your attention has slowly shifted away from the things that once kept you close to God.
If that is the case, do not wait for the gap to grow wider or for the distance to increase.
Fill it immediately and take the step that brings you back, because the beautiful thing about walking with God is that the moment you turn toward Him sincerely, He receives you and begins the quiet work of restoring what once felt out of place.
Shalom!
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