Hosea 8:13-14 New Living Translation

13 The people of Israel love their rituals of sacrifice, but to me their sacrifices are all meaningless. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt. 14 Israel has forgotten its Maker and built great palaces, and Judah has fortified its cities. Therefore, I will send down fire on their cities and will burn up their fortresses.”

Does this picture look familiar? In case you are wondering, it is a picture of stagnant water. It has green stuff growing all through it and is not suitable to drink. Most of us would answer the question, "No, it does not look familiar." But take a closer look at it. I hate to say it but it is a picture that resembles our lives. Think about it. For most of the churches today have become a great big lake of stagnant water that is unsuitable to drink. Why is this? Because we begin to love our rituals like Israel did in the above passage and we forget our Maker. These are both displeasing to God.

If you look closely at the picture, there is a pipe that feeds the water. I'm sure at what time there was water flowing through the pipe keeping the water active and living. But for some reason the water is now just trickling out letting the water sit and get stinky. Our walk with the Lord is the same way. When we let Him pour His Holy Spirit into our lives we are active and living. We are being filled with living water that others might drink from us. We have desires to share the gospel. Each morning we awake we are aware of His awesome presence all around us. But something happens. Instead of continuing to pursue Him with all of our hearts, we get into rituals and after awhile, we become stagnant and stinky unsuitable for anybody to drink from. There must be a sustained enthusiasm for Jesus. A passion to press in deeper and deeper until there is no stagnant aspect of our lives. Oh, how I pray that I do not grow stagnant, though sometimes I do.

How do we overcome this? By continuing to let God "change" us. Change is important. Without it we begin to grow stagnant. There is no such thing as an old dog not able to learn new tricks. Jesus wants to teach us everyday of our lives. He wants us to pursue Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Stay in Him. Let Him rejuvenate the stagnant aspects of your life. So that we might all truly be rivers of life giving water to the thirsty souls around us.

Don't let church, ministry, your family, or your walk with God become a ritual. If it has, shake up your prayer and Bible reading time. Stir up the ministry that God has called you to. Do something new and different and get back to a first love for Jesus.