This Magic Moment & When Your Faith Cools Off – Purity 1881
Purity 1881 02/07/2026 Purity 1881 Audio Podcast
Purity 1881 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a replica of a 19th-century canon overlooking a lush “jungle river” scene comes to us from yours truly as I paused to capture this “magic moment” while climbing through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in Disney’s Magic Kingdom back on February 17th, 2024.
Well, it’s Saturday, and I am rejoicing this morning because I am back in the arms of my love again, my wife, TammyLyn Clark, at our countryside home for the weekend, and because I was reflecting on some of the magic moments I have had with the Lord over the years.
From getting saved by a radio message on Aviation Road in Albany back in 2010 to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit when I went into recovery in 2015 and through all the years of life in the Spirit since then I can honestly say that my life in Christ has been an adventure that could fill volumes of books or be developed into many seasons of a biographical docudrama on your streaming service of choice. Just thinking about all the “magic moments” of my life in the Spirit got me singing that old Jay & the Americans’ song, This Magic Moment, and while I understand that the song is about romantic love – I can’t help but to associate it with the epic moments of my life when the Lord revealed Himself to me and His love was poured out on me. I’m completely honest when I tell you that I was singing this song to the Lord this morning – because everything I want, I have whenever HE holds me tight… and that our relationship will last forever, forever till the end of time!!!
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh (magic)
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh (magic)
Oh-oh-oh-oh (moment)
Anyway, I am officially on fire for God again as I have turned away from my fleshly indulgences of overeating at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026, and now am seeking to be all that I am in Christ and to be the person God created me to be on earth as it is in heaven.
Of course, the opposite of being on fire is being ice cold, and even though I am always seeking the Lord, I know how easily we can be led astray, and our faith can seem to cool off. Speaking of cooling off, today’s In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion addresses that topic, so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to always seek His presence to light our fires. Dr. Charles Stanley writes:
“When Our Faith Cools
If your passion for God fades, spend time in His Word to restore the vibrancy in your relationship with Him.
2 Timothy 1:1-11
Scripture assures us that as God’s children, we can never lose our salvation (John 10:27-28). However, it’s possible for our spiritual passion to wane. Today’s passage reveals that even Timothy’s excitement for God waned at times. That’s why Paul wrote to him, encouraging the young man to fan the flame of his faith.
Spiritual “cooling” can happen to any Christian. For instance, say tragedy or jealousy diverts our attention. Then, instead of crying out to the Lord and finding shelter in Him, we may gradually pull away from Bible reading. But God’s Word is like wood in a fireplace: The flames can be kept alive only when there are logs to burn. As less time is spent in Scripture, other aspects of our relationship with God can be affected. Perhaps church attendance decreases, giving becomes sporadic, and prayer—which seems stale—is used only for emergencies. That’s how joy, contentment, and peace can get replaced by worry, doubt, and fear.
A believer who allows himself to drift will miss out on the comfort and fulfillment of a close, vibrant relationship with the Lord. Think back. Is your excitement about the things of God stronger now? Or has it diminished? If your fire needs help to burn brightly, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to make that happen (John 16:13). – Charles Stanley
Amen. I can sort of relate to the idea that there will be times when our faith cools off, but if I am to be completely honest can’t sympathize with all that much because in my experience, whenever I “cooled off” in my faith, I now realize that it was not God who “left me”, it was me leaving God.
In some of those situations, it was because of grief from actually suffering loss, but mostly it was from me lamenting over the loss of my former life and my rebellious desire to “be normal again” and to go back to being lazy or being downright sinful.
Even though I had made Jesus my Lord and Savior, I had a lot to learn about living the Christian life and trusting God to meet all my needs. I would say that I am still a work in progress in this regard, but I have to be honest when I tell you that no matter how much I may have moments of trying to find comfort from the world, I never “cool off” from my faith anymore because I have made it to be such a large part of my life.
The first hours of all my days are dedicated to time in God’s word and prayer. I only vigorously exercise my body 5 days a week, but I never rest in the exercise of my faith and never lose the sense of the importance of daily “seeking the Lord”.
If you are cooling off or bored with your faith life, reach out and I can coach you on what to do the walk in the Spirit but Stanley’s simple advice to stay connected to God by asking the Holy Spirit to guide you is something every believer should do to become an “on fire” follower of Jesus Christ.
If you’re cooling off, I suggest you abandon the world and seek the Lord through study, service, worship, and repentance. It is in our commitment to surrender our lives to the Lord’s will and to fire up our passion to know Him and His ways more that we meet the living God.
I tell people to seek the Lord because I know He can be found – like really, really found – and I know that if you find Him, you will never cool off again.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
2 Peter 1:5–9
2 Peter 1:5–7 (NIV) For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
Today’s verses fall under the fourteenth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
14. The apostle Peter lists some Christ-like virtues we should seek after.
Today’s Bible verses push us to the process of becoming more and more like Jesus. Make every effort! Every effort! – Let me say that again – every effort – to add to your faith! To add to your faith!!
Yeah, God is not done with us when we say the prayer to put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We are expected to grow. We are expected to pursue the Lord and His ways.
With every effort we are to add to our faith:
Goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, goodliness, mutual affection, and love.
God’s not done with us. So, make every effort to find the life that He has for you.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today, we continue sharing from “Pause for Power” By Warren Wiersbe.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Wiersbe’s books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 15 – The Apostle – Read Galatians 1:1–10
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. – Galatians 1:1
In the early days of the church, God called special men to do special tasks. Among them were the apostles. The word apostle means “one who is sent with a commission.” While He was ministering on earth, Jesus had many disciples (“learners”), and from these He selected twelve apostles (Mark 3:13–19). Later, one of the requirements for an apostle was that he had to have witnessed the resurrection (Acts 1:21–22; 2:32; 3:15).
Paul’s miraculous conversion and call to apostleship created some problems. From the very beginning, he was apart from the original apostles. His enemies said that he was not a true apostle for this reason. Paul points out that he had been made an apostle by Jesus Christ just as much as had the original Twelve. His apostleship was not from human selection, but by divine appointment.
But in his ministry, Paul had a second basis for authority: He founded the churches in Galatia. He was not writing to them as a stranger, but as the one who had brought them the message of life!
Something to Ponder – Why is “relationship” important to Paul’s claim of apostleship? How do your relationships affect your ministry?[1]
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[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures, 2nd Ed., Year in the Word Series (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010).
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