Dry. Like a barren desert scorched from the heat. Cracks spread widely from the lack of rain.
Empty. A feeling of dissatisfaction with life. A void, regardless of many attempts, you are unable to fill.
Parched. Your being feels in every ounce of your soul a desire to be refreshed. Your extremities ache within to hear, feel, see and touch the hand of God.
Throughout our lifetime, we come to periods where we feel emotionally and physically distant from God.
We don’t see Him working in our lives and therefore, come to the conclusion we have been abandoned and forgotten. Our daily quiet times seem dry and monotonous. We possibly see God working in other people’s lives, but beg to ask the question,
“Why don’t I see God doing anything involving me?”
We read the Word of God as if it is merely a textbook or an account of history. The words no longer bounce off the page and come to life. Hopeless, we lay our Bibles aside and attempt to live our life without Him. We give up on God because He seems aloof and uninvolved. Step by step, we slowly distance ourselves from Him.
We don’t see God working and become convinced that there is no longer a God…or at least an involved, caring, and passionate God.
If this is where you are today, let me remind you–you are not alone. We all have felt alone and distant from God at times. There have been times we have put up a wall in order to block ourselves from hearing and seeing God. This wall may be sin in our lives or a fatal attempt at self-protection. We don’t want to hear from God because we don’t want to do what He says.
Let’s go back to the basics. Let’s challenge ourselves to read the Word of God. However, this time, ask God to speak to you.
Ask Him to make His story come alive. Read His Word as if it is God Almighty Himself talking to you. Step into His story. Put yourselves in the shoes of the Israelites, or the apostles, or the Gentiles. Grab ahold of what is going on in the text with all of your senses–touch, taste, hear and see the Word of God. Seek Him with all of your heart and soul…as if you are a dry, parched desert begging for rain. I promise you (because God’s Word says so) that His Word will not return void. Begin asking God to do something in you so you can see Him working.
Isaiah 55:10-12, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. “For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.…”