3 Strategies For Spiritual Drought
Thirst — a feeling we all have, sometimes, even multiple times per day. A physical thirst is one we are all very familiar with, but have we ever thought about how there is actually another type of thirst, a Spiritual one? If our physical bodies can become thirsty, our Spiritual health can also become thirsty. When life gets tough or busy, we might find ourselves in a Spiritual drought. During those moments of Spiritual drought, we often feel like God is far from us. This week we will be walking through what Spiritual drought is, and how to tend to our own Spiritual soil to repair our current drought or prevent from having another one. So if you have found yourself in a Spiritual Drought, then keep on reading.
3 Strategies For Spiritual Drought:
Bible Verse: Psalm 68:5-6 “A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.”
Seeing Our Parched Hearts:
If you have ever went for a hike before, you will know that as you walk, you start to notice the things around you. You notice all of the details, and are able to describe them. But what about our hearts? Do we take the time to examine our own hearts enough that we can see what is going on around us? Seeing our parched hearts is all about stopping long enough to truthfully examine our own hearts. Have we given God our best in our time, and in our love for Him? A parched heart is one, if you are honest, that has let too much of the world seep in, and now have a feeling of distance from God. You might even feel like you don’t know how to get back to a place of closeness to God and your church family. You might often feel lonely or excluded. If we don’t stop and acknowledge what condition our hearts are in, then we cannot tend to the problems at hand before they become too bad. So our first step in repairing the Spiritual drought we are in, by examining ourselves. Have we been spending more time in the world than with God? Have we become too self centered by spending more time with hobbies or self care, rather than serving others? Have we been feeling more and more negative about going to church, over having joy being able to go and worship God? These are all the questions we need to ask of our hearts, and be honest before we can start repairing.
Tend To Our Soil:
Now that we have started to answer the questions of where our hearts are, now we have to deal with the issues. Are we spending too much time in the world rather than God? Then we need to start weeding out the things taking up too much of our time, and allow for more time with God.
Have we become too self centered by spending more time with hobbies or self care, rather than serving others? Then we need to limit our time in hobbies and self care if those are becoming the primary parts of our lives. God wants us to draw our rest from time spend with Him, not time spent in the world. And use our time to serve others.
Have we been feeling more and more negative about going to church, over having joy being able to go and worship God? Then we need to refocus our time at church to being one where it is not about how it makes us “feel,” but how we can encourage others. When we come to church with a mission of making others feel better than when they arrived, it will completely change our outlook on others and our time spent before and after services.
The point with this step is to start eliminating the weeds and rocks from our heart, so our soil can start getting ready for the growth that a true relationship will bring.
Nurture The Growth:
As you start to eliminate the weeds and rocks from your own heart, you will start to notice more healthy habits starting. Those healthy habits might include: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are the types of growth that will come when you are in the Spirit. Being in the Spirit is nurturing the growth of how God wants us to act and live. These types of growth can only come when all of the weeds and rocks have first been eliminated, and are also continually removed. And as you notice growth in your life, you continue to keep it ever growing. Our faith can never be “good enough” or “the same as last year.” If we are not growing in our faith with God, then we are slowly letting our soil become dry again. God is the true living water, and if we are not constantly near Him and seeking Him, then our soil is getting dry. Too much dryness leads to a drought. The drought is caused by our own doing of being away from the True Water for too long. Are we letting ourselves become too dry by letting the day to day distractions, our desires, our hobbies, our jobs, our self-care, or our relationships become too much of the main deal. Only time with God can give us all that we need to replenish our soil, and help us finally have true purpose in life. Time spent with Him will make our cups overflow with exactly what we need to get through the hard days. So will you replenish your heart with God today?
Ideas for Spiritual Drought:
Check your heart daily. Start everyday with a prayer for your heart that day, and end your day with reflecting on your heart throughout the day. Be honest with yourself. If you want an easy way to track your heart condition at home this book is great for that ( click HERE).
Prioritize Prayer and Bible study every single day before taking part in any hobbies or self-care. Our relationship with God needs to happen before we do any of the fun extra things. They are the extras not the main point. God should be our main point.
Prioritize attending worship. Start attending all services — IN PERSON, not online. Watching online, just because we don’t want to attend will only increase the problem of a Spiritual drought.
Challenge yourself to talk to more people at Church. It is easy to let yourself feel lonely during a Spiritual Drought, but getting outside of your comfort zone and talking to others will help you replenish your soil.
Serve others. God calls us to be servants, and being able to actually serve others is one of the quickest ways to feel like your drought is going away. God intended for us to get outside of ourselves to serve Him. That service will be the most rewarding and fulfilling thing that we can do for our Spiritual health.
Conclusion:
Spiritual drought doesn’t have to be permanent. God’s love and belonging can be the downpour in our lives that we have been waiting for. Our Spiritual drought will never be solved through the world. The world will only increase the drought. Only through time spent with God can we eliminate our drought and then become a fruitful laborer in God’s vineyard. Remember that even in the dry seasons of life, God can help us find a way back to Him. We must first acknowledge the parched parts of our heart, tend to our soil, and nurture the growth. Only then will we turn our Spiritual Drought into a Spiritual Abundance.
About the Author: My name is Katie, and I’m a Church of Christ Preacher’s wife in Kentucky. I am also a proud homeschool mom to two brilliant boys. I love to craft, and make and bind my own notebooks. I also make a weekly podcast show called “Just Bible No Fluff",” where I skip all of fluffy extras and hop right into a short yet impactful exegetical study of the scripture. My mission and vision in life is this: “To empower women Spiritually by enhancing their skills in deep Bible study, equipping them to effectively teach the Gospel to others, and guiding them in cultivating Spiritual growth beyond the Church building.”