I ran across a passage that said this:
Are you tired of being spiritually tired? Do you feel that your spiritual vitality has been ebbing away for a long, long time? Have you wondered at times how much longer you can do on like this? Then think with me again about what I've been saying: Distance is the reason for the dryness, and disobedience is responsible for the distance. Now, you may not like that fact. You can ignore it. You can decide not to pay attention to it. But that won't make you less dry. ... Are you willing to accept that your dryness has been caused by a distance, which has come about because of disobedience?So, my question that I pose to you, those special few, select people who read my blog: Does God ever distance Himself from us, or is perceived distance a result of our behavior? Please note, I know that Christ said he would never leave us or foresake us, but I'm talking about God being silent, such as the time between the old and the new testaments. To put it another way, when we feel spiritually dry, is it because of something we ourselves have done, or does God sometimes allow periods of dryness in our life?
I'd love to hear what you guys think, since I'm going to go out on a limb and say that all of us have felt that spiritually dry, or distant from God. Please leave your comments on my blog so others can see your thoughts.
Thanks!
Me
3 comments:
i've personally gone thru 3 types of silence/dry periods. (2 were actual full on desert experiences). the first desert was (scary!) God's answer to my prayer! the second desert was a result of sin. a third type of silence was due to not distance of disobedience but just distance of me not pursuing Him...just living the day to day w/o setting aside time to seek Him, w/o acknowledging His work in my life.
but even in the silence God is faithful. (as in the the answered prayer silence). He cannot tolerate our sin and must look away but He is yet faithful to pursue us, to call us to repentance, to love us and offer mercy.
Perhaps distance from God can often be traced to disobedience. However, I don't think that is always the case. Our lives won't always be composed of mountaintop highs where we experience an abundance of lush growth. There are bound to be the lows of dry valleys.
For a while, I was feeling very dry and like there was little growth in my spiritual life. God answered my prayers for growth by guiding me to a wonderful Bible study where I have learned more in 10 months than I have in about 5 years of church attendance. Was my dry spell a result of disobedience on my part? I don't think so... I think it was more that I wasn't getting fed enough at church. Maybe it was more spiritual starvation than dryness?
When Jesus prayed three times for God to take away his burden...but ultimately be obedient to God's will, did Jesus not hear from God? Was this a dry spell? A rhetorical question? Why three times? Was God not listening?
some other 'answers' to think about...
1. Are we really dry, or is it just our need to 'feel' like we are more spiritual, or feel like we are doing more?
2. Sometimes silence/dry periods are answers to pray or maybe a new way to teach us how to listen and quit looking for a presence that is already within us.
3.Maybe, just maybe, Satan and/or his demons are whispering in our ear how lonely we are...and that doesn't involve sin to happen.
For example, get two or three people to go up to one of your friends and ask her/him if he is doing well, and give them a slight impression they look tired, concerned, and/or is something bothering them...their mind will kick right in and they will start to question whether they really do feel good.
I think there are way to many answers besides sin for going thru a silent or dry spell from God.
But very thought provoking indeed.
Post a Comment