Finding God when you feel broken and abandoned is something we all face at some point in our lives. When we are reeling from a great loss when life doesn’t go our way and we find ourselves trying to piece the remnants back together again.
You’ve been in the storm for what feels like an eternity and you find yourself trying to find God in this place. Your soul begs for a reprieve for a moment of peace to catch your breath. You’ve nothing left to give, your arms are long since weary of the battle. You wonder if this storm you are facing will ever be over, once again you’ve found yourself slipping toward rock bottom, but you keep fighting.
The storm leaves deep wounds that steal your breath away- and then it is over and you find yourself facing a new battle. Brittle, battered, broken, and plunged into an arid wasteland. Finding God in this season can feel like an impossible task.
Exhaustion clings to the depths of your soul, as you trudge through this season. So quickly thriving has turned into trying to survive. The heat beats down on you, as dust and broken dreams swirl around your feet. What used to bring you joy, now is just a habit. Your heart feels as if it has been broken in too many pieces to ever be whole again, your parched soul craves even a single drop of precious water, and your mind wearily tries to fight against the devil’s lies.
With each day you are driven further and further into the wasteland, the loneliness your only companion as wounds harden- not healed but sealed beneath thick scars to protect us from the pain. The last shreds of hope wither beneath the merciless sun and survival becomes our only goal. If we looked in the mirror, we wouldn’t even recognize the person that stared back at us.
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Finding God In Unexpected Places
Often we go from the fierceness of the stormy season to the harshness of the dry season without a chance to catch our breath in between. We are plunged in from one extreme to the next, and exhaustion takes its toll on our spirits, on our relationships, and on our faith. We are so busy just trying to draw in the next precious breath to survive that we don’t have the time or energy to do all the things we should be doing.
In this season isolation becomes like a mirage of an oasis. The pain and sometimes even disappointment drives further and further away from the people and things that can quench our thirsty souls.
Just because the face of our battlefield has changed doesn’t mean the lessons we’ve learned through the stormy seasons have lost their impact. No matter how brittle or dried up we feel the truth that was compacted in the storm has not lost its potency.
- He is still God. In the storm and in the desert.
- You can not be lost to Him. No matter how big the storm, or vast the wasteland you are held firmly in your God’s hand.
- No matter how storm-tossed, broken, brittle, battered, or lost you feel, He will not abandon you. You will never be too much trouble for Him.
- You are His beloved child, this place, this season, this storm, or dry season is not a surprise to Him. He knew you would be right here, right now, dealing with this- and because He knew you’d be here He’s set in place the provision you’ll need.
- No matter how long this season is, and the battles it holds He will see you through to the other side.
What Does It Mean To Find God?
Finding God, or Finding God again means that you are opening a door to a relationship with Him and inviting Him into your life to meet you where you are. It’s the surrendering of our plans and in some ways our understanding and letting Jesus step into our life.
Why Is Finding God Important When You Are Struggling?
Finding God in the midst of our struggles can feel impossible. Our feelings tell us we are alone, pain whispers to your heart you were a fool to trust once again. Fear ensnares you telling you are alone, that you are in too many pieces to ever be put back together.
It’s in these places, where we are broken and in some cases bitter that the devil likes to make us focus on our feelings instead of what we know to be true. Finding God in these seasons is both vital and difficult because our emotions are involved. Our heart lies to us, it tells us that God has abandoned us, that He doesn’t care, that this is some sort of vengeance for something we have done.
Don’t Let The Season Keep You From Finding God
Don’t let the devil drive you away from the only one who can revive what is withering in your soul. Don’t let him isolate you from the people who will pour into your empty cup, because sometimes we can’t do it by ourselves. Sometimes we need Godly brothers and sisters to come beside us and hold our arms up. To speak into our lives and remind us of God’s promises. We need them to drown out the enemy’s lies and remind us of who we are, and who we belong to.
The devil will do everything he can to crush your faith, to make you throw in the towel, and I think sometimes it’s way easier to do after we’ve gone through the storm and emerged exhausted. When we feel hollow because in the storm you can see the battle you are facing. But often in the dry season, you don’t know what you are fighting. In the stormy season you know what to ask people to pray for, but when you are walking through the wasteland and you don’t know what’s wrong- how do you ask for help? And that pushes us further away from those who can pour back into us.
How Do I Find God?
It’s just as important to hold tight to God’s promises in the dry season, as it is in the storm. We can’t relax our grip on what we know to be true, what we’ve learned and who God has revealed Himself to be. See I think many of us relax when the storm blows over, but the truth is we need God in the darkest moments when every fiber of our being screams for us to give up and when life is rosy. Our need for Him never dissipates, we need Him every moment of every day. But as we step out of the stormy season, we tend to put God back on the shelf for the next time our life is falling apart and we’ve hit rock bottom.
We don’t need a genie in a bottle to save us when the storm rages, we need Him in our everyday lives, in our relationships, in our jobs, in our dreams. We need a living breathing relationship with Him.
Finding God In Our Daily Lives
How do we do that? Spend time with Him, it’s so important so that when we are caught in a downpour, or find ourselves trudging in the desert that we focus on finding God in the midst of the season. He is our lifeline.
- Read your Bible – daily, study it, memorize it until it becomes as natural as breathing.
- Pray – prayer is a conversation with your heavenly father, bring Him your every need, thank Him for his provision even when you can’t see it yet.
- Get into a church and get involved – surround yourself with people who can and will sow into your life, pray for you and speak the truth when the devil tries to confuse you.
- Invite Him into every step of your plans.
- Keep doing it, even if you don’t feel a difference. Even if you keep feeling empty, do not stop.
Finding God Bible Verses
The Bible is filled with verses about Finding God:
But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13
that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us Acts 17:27
“I love those who love me, And those who diligently seek me will find me. Proverbs 8:17
“For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 8:35
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:5
Finding God In The Hard Seasons
This season can serve a purpose, it can further compound what you’ve learned in the storm. It can deepen your relationship with your God, and make your faith stronger. Finding God in this season, and letting Him use it can change our whole lives and give you the ability to reach out to others walking through a dry season of their own.
Or this season can be the thing that breaks your faith. You must decide, who gets the power over this season of your life. Will, you choose to keep walking deeper and let it stretch your faith. To let it take you deeper than you’ve ever been, where your trust must grow, where you must rely on Him and let Him lead you. Or will you let it push you away from your Savior?
Before you go, check these out!
- 7 Powerful Ways To Trust God In Difficult Times
- Finding God When You Are Engulfed In Flames
- God In The Storm
- Hearing God’s Voice In The Chaos
- Finding Peace In Chaos | 3 Powerful Ways To Find Peace In The Midst Of The Storm
