Don’t Feel Like Coming to Church or Communion?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many people join a church. However, as time goes on, a large percentage of those who have joined a church stop attending. There are often many excuses and reasons why someone has stopped coming to Bible study, worship, and coming to receive the gifts of God for them in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. When asked why this is, individuals will often respond with: “I simply lost my desire to attend.” Again, there may be other excuses and reasons beyond someone simply losing their desire to attend. But this creates another problem.

I want you to imagine the image of a starving child. In fact, you don’t have to really imagine it. A quick internet search will provide you with plenty of heart wrenching images of starving children. But with this image in mind, think of what happens to a starving child or adult. When a person begins to starve, he or she suffers great hunger. However, after a while, he or she gets so weak that he or she even ceases to be hungry. For the body begins to lose its desire to eat or drink. To rescue an individual who is at the point of starvation, you often have to force food or water into the body, in order to cause the starving individual to regain their hunger. The same thing happens when we starve ourselves spiritually.

You seem the devil likes to manipulate us. The devil cleverly works to manipulate Christians in order to eliminate our desire or hunger for worship or Holy Communion. Martin Luther, reformer, had much to say in regards to how the devil cleverly works in our lives, seeking to take away our desire to go to worship and to receive the gifts of God for us in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Let’s take a look at what Luther had to say as he writes:

“In order that everyone may learn what a tricky knave the devil is, I want to give an example out of my own experience to all who are willing to let themselves be warned. It has happened to me several times that I resolved to go to the Sacrament on this day or that day. When the day arrived, my devotion disappeared or some hindrance came up, or I regarded myself unfit, saying: “Very well, I will go in a week.” But the next week again found me as unfit and encumbered as on the former occasion: “Very well, I will go next week.”

Can you relate to Luther? If we are honest with ourselves, we can all think of those things that this world has to offer which seem more appealing to us then going to church on Sunday morning to receive the gifts of God for us in Word and Sacrament ministry. There have been those mornings where our bed and pillow are more appealing than getting up and going to worship and to receive the very medicine (body and blood of Christ) which has been prescribed for our sin-sick souls. But what happens when we allow the devil to cleverly work in this way to manipulate us from going to worship and Holy Communion?

We begin to become spiritually ill. Luther continues on and writes:

“Those weeks became so numerous that I almost got away from it entirely and hardly ever went to the Sacrament. But when God granted me grace to become aware of the devil’s knavery, I said: ‘Do you want to make a wager, Satan, that I don’t know what you’re up to? A plague upon your cleverness!’ So I broke out of the vicious circle and participated in the Sacrament, even without making confession several times (which I do not ordinarily do) to spite the devil particularly because I was not conscious of any gross sins.”

Beloved in the Lord, when we allow the devil to manipulate us in such a way, we begin to starve spiritually. When we get to the point that we a spiritually starving, we must eat in order to regain our appetite! We must once again come to worship and to the Sacrament in order to feed ourselves spiritually, and so that we may be strengthened and nourished in order that we can fight off these clever attacks of the devil. Luther further explains:

“And so I discovered this about myself: If a person has no longing or reverence for the Sacrament and yet earnestly makes an effort to participate in it, then such thoughts and thee action itself bring forth sufficient reverence and longing and do a good job of driving away the lazy and morose thoughts which hinder a person and make him unfit. For it is a gracious, efficacious Sacrament, if one thinks about it only a little with earnestness and prepares oneself fort it, then it kindles, arouses, and further attracts the heart to itself. Try it, and if you do not find it to be thus, you can accuse me of lying. I am willing to wager that you, too, will find that the devil has artfully fooled you and has cleverly kept you from the Sacrament so that he might in time make you lose faith entirely and make you forget about your dear Savior and all your need” (Luther’s Works, vol. 38, p. 127).

Of course, there are those in this world who see no need for Jesus. There are some who feel no desire or need to go to church or to receive Holy Communion because they see no serious sin in their life. To this type of attitude and giving into the devil’s lies and schemes Luther warns:

“I want to tell you without jesting: ‘If you do not feel any sin, you are assuredly completely dead in sins, yes, dead, and sin is reigning over you with might.’ I do not even have to mention coarse, external sins such as a desire for unchastity, adultery, anger, hatred, envy, revenge, pride, and covetousness. The fact that you have neither the need nor the desire to partake of the Sacrament is in itself already a most serious and great sin. From this, we perceive that you also have no faith, that you have no regard for God’s Word, have forgotten about Christ’s suffering, and are full of unthankfulness and all kinds of spiritual abominations” (Luther’s Works, vol. 38, p. 129).

Beloved, these words of Luther seem harsh. But the devil’s schemes and his attacks on us as baptized children of God is never ending. Therefore, when you feel no need or desire to go to church to receive God’s living Word in your soul or Holy Communion (even though our gracious God is lovingly inviting and urging you to attend and partake), consider this lack or desire in the very depths of your heart and soul to be a bright, red flashing warning light. A warning that is a matter of life and death. Cling to the truth and promises of God’s living and active Word in order that you may fight off the attacks and schemes of the devil.

Beloved, it is important that we continually and daily feed ourselves spiritually. Therefore, when we hunger and thirst, go to Jesus who is the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:26-36). Run to Jesus who is the living Water of Life for you (Jn. 7:37). When you feel no desire for God’s life-giving Word and Sacraments, know with certainty that this is the devil manipulating your feelings in order to draw you away from God. The devil doesn’t seek to just draw you away from God for a short period of time. No! The devil looks and seeks to draw you away from God forever. How do we then overcome the evil tricks of the devil? Beloved, we come and we worship God and receive His Bread of Life, even when we have no desire.

For when we do, God will use His living and active Word to give you new hunger, preventing you from starving spiritually just as some individuals who truly experience physical hunger and starvation. Come to Jesus. Allow Him to restore your hunger and desire for Him beloved. For when you do, He will enable you to say with the Psalmist: “O God, you are my God. I shall seek You earnestly. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh yearns for You” (Psalm 63:1).

Beloved, the same “God who veiled Himself in a burning bush now veils His body in the bread and His blood in the wine of Holy Communion. The crucified and risen Christ who physically came to Thomas and the other disciples behind locked doors now physically comes to you. He who fed and nourished His disciples on the shores of Tiberias after His resurrection now feeds and nourishes you. He does this, so that you might participate, here and now, in the all-availing sacrifice of His body and blood given and shed for you on the cross of Golgotha and that you may taste and see that the Lord is good, that He is for you and not against you, that He is not angry at you, or looking to punish you. For He loves you. He forgives you. He is with you even in the presence of our enemies” (Filipek, Life Rooted in Christ, p. 106).

Rejoice in this beloved. Trust is these promises. But most of all, come regulary and often to receive the gifts of God for you in Word and Sacrament ministry. Come and receive the very medicine which has been prescribed for our sin-sick souls. Come and receive Jesus. Receive His love. His grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

When the devil tries to keep you away from church and Holy Communion this week, or the next, or the next? What will your response be? I pray that you will overcome the devil by coming to church and coming to Holy Communion. I pray that our God will continue to create within each of your hearts, an everlasting hunger for Him.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit abide with you today and always! Amen!