If you’ve been saved for very long, you have experienced a season of spiritual dryness. I am here to tell you, you don’t have to settle for living in that season for very long!
Not sure?
What Is Spiritual Dryness?
When your quiet time feels routine, like you are just checking something off a to-do list rather than meeting with the Lover of your soul…
As you realize that you can’t feel His presence…
When your prayer life is feeling one-sided, like every request just bounces off the ceiling.
We’ve all been there. Me? More times than I’d like to admit, especially in the middle years of faith.
Lately I’ve been remembering how things shifted for me, from spiritually dry to on fire for the Lord almost all the time. There was one thing that changed everything!
Is Your Spiritual Dryness A Sign Of Unforgiveness? Share on XWhen I Realized The Trap of Spiritual Dryness
More than 30 years ago, I confided in a more mature friend at work about this Spiritual Dryness. I felt so distant from God, and nothing seemed to fix it!
Her words hit me hard:
“Spiritual dryness is normal, Tiffany. We all experience it. You’ll get used to it in time.”
That just hit me as so wrong. I couldn’t accept it. Didn’t the Bible say if we seek the Lord, we will find Him?
Seek The Lord Verses
I was adamant that “just get used to it” couldn’t be write or Biblical, and I set out to prove that to her and myself.
This is just a little of what I found in that season.
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13 ESV)
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” (Proverbs 8:17 ESV)
“But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV)
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8 ESV)
Seek the Lord is the instruction of Scripture. If we seek Him, we will find Him. If we seek Him, there will not be spiritual dryness.
Related Post: 100+ Forgiveness Bible Verses To Bring Breakthrough
What Spiritual Dryness Really Means
Does spiritual dryness happen… to most every believer on the face of the earth? Yep. 100%.
Should we accept it as just another part of the “mature Christian life”? Absolutely not!
The truth is, there is a real trap being set by our real enemy. If we accept that it’s just normal to have long periods of dryness or distance from God, we become ineffective in the Kingdom of God.
No, my friend, we can’t just ignore spiritual dryness or write it off as a season. This is meant to be a red flag, a loving warning from our Heavenly Father.
That season of dryness can be a tool of the Holy Spirit saying, “Something is off. Lean in harder. Seek Me diligently. Draw nearer.”
What Can We Do When We Recognize Spiritual Dryness?
I couldn’t accept it then and after digging into the Word, my friend and I set out to change the status quo in our own lives. It changed everything!
Now, when I feel like my quiet time is stale or I can’t feel His presence, I respond with fasting and prayer. I begin asking, “Lord, what is standing between You and me, blocking the nearness I long for?”
Related Post: A Wife’s True Story: Knowing The Importance of Forgiveness in Marriage Leads To Blessing
Fast and Pray – Draw Near To Him
Fasting and prayer are the most basic tools for drawing near to the Lord in a posture of humility.
Give up something you seek for satisfaction: a meal, a type of food you love, a drink you enjoy, entertainment, oils, sexual intimacy. etc. Giving up anything you seek for satisfaction will help prompt you to seek the Lord more consistently.
Every time I seek Him in this way, He reveals what is at the root of my dryness.
Unforgiveness. 90% of the time, it has to do with something or someone I have not forgiven completely (usually within my marriage…grrrr…)!
Related Post: 2 Foolish Objections to Forgiveness in Marriage
When You Thought You Forgave…
Forgiveness is hard. Especially when the hurt is deep. Hard!
Most of the time, I want to ignore it (sweep it under the rug and not cause a scene) and move on. Anybody else?
#PeoplePleaser #NonConfrontationalpersonality #DoorMat
Thankfully… Lovingly… Mercifully… God won’t let me live opposite to His way of loving others and myself.
over and over again, I hear Him whisper, “Forgive, Tiffany.” “No, really forgive, heart deep.”
Honestly, sometimes the dryness is an area of sin I need to deal with – something I did, said or ignored in disobedience.
But 90% of the time? It’s a person or situation I haven’t truly forgiven.
And let me tell you: That is way harder to deal with than sin!
Related Post: Unforgiveness: What Happens When I Refuse To Forgive
Don’t Settle For Spiritual Dryness
As I prepare to launch my new 5-week Bible study – Real Forgiveness: How Anyone Can Forgive Anything– I keep thinking back to that conversation with my friend.
Back then, I challenged her and me both: Don’t accept distance from God.
We were both forever changed.
Now, I’m challenging you: Don’t settle. Don’t stay dry!
Seek Him. Press in harder. Let Him show you what’s blocking intimacy with Him!
Spiritual dryness should never be accepted. His is faithful to heal whatever you bring to Him!
The Real Forgiveness study launches Saturday, July 5th. It might just be the tool God uses to bring you back to Him.
in HIS love,
Tiffany of Hope Joy in Christ inspires Christian Women to grow in faith, live out Biblical Marriage Principles and raise Godly Children. Join the Wives Only Facebook Group here or keep up with her through Pinterest.
If this was helpful, check out these articles:
- 7 Ways to Embrace the Power of Forgiveness
- 40 Day Fasting and Prayer Guide: Be Still and Know God More
- 8 Ways To Abide in Christ and Fight Spiritual Dryness
