The other night I was preparing for my regular ritual of eating multiple bowls of cereal. However, this ritual was interrupted by one of the stools from the bar that just so happened to be right in the middle of the kitchen. Every time I had to move from the refrigerator or cabinets to the bar, I'd have to walk around this chair. Usually, walking around something isn't a problem. However, the space around the chair was really small and it was hard to maneuver through—especially while walking with breakables in hand. You'd think that, since I had to make multiple trips around this chair, I'd just move the chair to save myself the aggravation of dodging it during my later trips. But nonetheless, I didn't move the obstacle in my way.

My reluctance to move the chair was either brought about by laziness or pride. I was either too lazy to move the obstacle in my way or I thought that the object was too easy to overcome to even make an effort of moving it. I believe that, in a spiritual sense, many of us have this same problem. We have temptations or strongholds in our lives that cause us to stumble, yet we refuse to get rid of them in order to clear the path for the future.

This type of behavior is dangerous. If we don't work on the things that are causing our relationship with Christ to suffer, we will ultimately end up feeling aggravated and lonely. We will feel convinced that God doesn't love us because we don't feel Him working in our lives. But, when it comes down to it, the reason why we don't feel God moving in our lives is because we allow the things of this world to get in between our relationship with Him.

Are there times when you're too lazy to work on the things that are causing you to stumble? Does your pride cause you to believe that what you are struggling with is too small to make an effort to fix? God desires to be with us (John 15:16a). He gave up His own Son just so a relationship with Him would be possible (John 3:16). What are you doing to nurture your relationship with Him? Throughout your day, allow yourself to become conscious of the things that are getting in the way of your relationship with Christ and work on removing them. You will find that the more important you make Christ in your life, the more your relationship with Him will grow and the more obvious His presence in your life will be (James 4:8a).