I know, this may be too personal for some, but it’s good to ask. Do you struggle with constipation? I am not talking about bodily functions. I am referring to your faith. Do you get backed up where your faith moves slowly or not at all, where you aren’t maturing? Your walk becomes stagnant when you stop letting God move your forward.
A constipated sojourner is a slow, spiritual learner. Constipation occurs when you aren’t eating a diet of God’s Word daily. And while you do ingest Truth, you don’t do anything with it. You ignore God and remain unchanged. When you study God’s Word, God is working within you to become more like His Son and be His light in this dark world. This can only happen when you allow God to transform your heart and mind. He helps to realign your thinking so His ways become your ways.
A child of God is always moving forward focused on what God wants.
A constipated sojourner is also dual-minded. You hang out in the spiritual realm for a short time but then you go over to the carnal side and hang out there too. You like both worlds and you bobble back and forth between the two. God speaks of this bobbling in His Word. James 4:4 ESV says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” 1 John 2:15 ESV says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:17 ESV says, ” And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
So, what does a child of God look like that is not constipated, where he has learned the art of abiding in Christ in all situations? One trait is he seeks God. He went beyond seeking the things of God to seeking God Himself. 1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV says, “Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually.” God will reveal Himself to you in ways that you will know that it is Him and He will give you a thirst for Him. This thirst grows as you mature in Him.
Do you seek God?
Another trait is obedience. This one takes longer to cultivate within a human heart. As you seek the Lord and build your trust in Him, your level of obedience deepens. You want to please God, but human nature is bent on doing what it wants to do. Thus, you turn your back on God and bobble your way back into the world. You read about this bobbling in John 6:60-71.
When Jesus was on earth, everyone had a front row seat to Him. Why would believers stop following Him? “They turned away and deserted Him.”66 One indicator was they found Jesus’ words hard to understand. Do you struggle? That’s okay, God will help you with that. The Holy Spirit will give you clarity and understanding; read John 14:26, 16:13, 1 Corinthian 2:10. Second, they had a hard time accepting His ways. That’s a struggle for every one of us. A spirit-filled heart has learned that following Jesus is better than being on your own. This next one pierces your heart as well as mine, they complained. Ugh.
How well are you accepting of God’s ways over your own?
Here’s the root of constipation-style faith: “But some of you do not believe Me.”64
While you and I are quick to say, “Yes I believe.” Do you? Is your mindset aligned to Truth? Does your lifestyle prove it? Every single one of us falls short; see Romans 3:23. Yet, God in His great mercy and love gave us Jesus. And in Him, we can persevere on this side of heaven and get to the maturity level of Peter, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know You are the Holy One of God.”68-69
This is where God desires for each of His children to get to; to believe like Peter. He experienced Jesus and he chose to believe. Peter is a good reminder in how easy it is to become constipated. After this declaration, he bobbled with a rooster.
God’s call to each of us is to persevere. Take a minute to look up verses on perseverance. I will end with this verse that God has recently given to me, “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36).
Walking by faith is not for the weary. God understands this and He will help you to keep the faith until He takes you home. He needs you to keep your focus on Him and allow Him to change you from the inside out.
Carol J German 