As I was preparing for my last class on the Great Awakening, I came across 25 evidences of a drifting heart in need of revival. These are slightly adapted from Richard Owen Roberts’s book, Revival. For further elaboration of each point, I recommend you pick up his book, but in the mean time these 25 points should be enough for some serious reflection:
25 Evidences of a Drifting Heart
Adapted from Richard Owen Roberts in his book Revival
1.When prayer ceases to be a vital part of our lives.
2.When the quest for biblical truth ceases and we are content with knowledge we have already acquired.
3.When the biblical knowledge we have is treated as fact and not applied inwardly to the heart.
4.When thoughts about eternal things cease to be regular and gripping.
5.When the worship services of the church lose their delights.
6.When pointed spiritual discussions are an embarrassment to us.
7.When sports, recreation and entertainment become a necessity to us, more important than the things of God.
8.When we can indulge in the sins of the body and mind without an uproar from our consciences.
9.When aspirations for Christian holiness cease to be dominant in our lives.
10.When the acquisition of money and goods becomes dominant in our thinking.
11.When you can sing the songs of the church without your heart.
12.When you can hear the Lord’s name taken in vain and spiritual things mocked without indignation and action.
13.When you can watch degrading movies and TV and read the same.
14.When division and breeches in the peace of the church are of no concern to you.
15. When you able to use the slightest excuses to keep yourself from spiritual duty and opportunity.
16.When you become content with your lack of spiritual power and no longer even seek God’s power.
17.When you easily pardon your sin and sloth saying the Lord understands.
18.When there is no music in your soul and no song in your heart but only silence for God.
19.When you adjust happily to the world’s lifestyle.
20.When injustice and human misery exist around you and you do little or nothing in response.
21.When your church has fallen into a spiritual slide and you are content with it.
22.When the spiritual condition of the world around you is not apparent to you, you just adjust to it.
23.When you are willing to cheat your employer.
24.When you find yourself rich in grace and mercy and marvel at your own godliness.
25.When your tears are dried up and the cold, hard facts of your spiritual condition can not unleash them.
Brian J. Mikul 
During the holidays, someone commented on someone we all knew who had quit taking their medication. I didn’t catch the whole thing, but I was aware that the medication was for depression or some kind of mental condition.
The comment that got my attention was something to the effect that ‘they are fine when they take it, get really bad when they quit; and the bad thing about it, they don’t realize their getting worse’.
As soon as they said that, I thought of another condition that all of us have – sin. There is a prescribed treatment and if we take it we are okay. If we don’t we won’t be, and the bad thing about it is, we won’t even realize we’re getting worse.
Sin tries to convince us to believe a lie. The only treatment for that is truth. “Thy word is truth.”
Good illustration of our drifting hearts. Too true.
OUCH.
Talk about a bulls-eye shot. This one pierced my very soul.
As my spiritual father used to comment when he would make a relevant point,
“Say ‘Amen’ or ‘Oh, me’.”
Nicely said. Nicely said, indeed. This is the kind of thing that disciples need to measure themselves against to make sure they are not drifting. I can honestly confess there are several key points in that list I am uncomfortable with because I am doing them.
Time to get things right again, definitely.
Thanks!