Did you know that you can still have storms in a dry season? It’s true, and they can be quite dangerous. They sweep through loud and violent prepared to blow anything in its path- but even more frightening they can light up the dry grass and dead plants so that it becomes the perfect tinder box.
So often when we think of a storm, I don’t think we realize that we can be going through a spiritually dry season- only to walk into a storm at the very same time. And all the while desperately holding on to God. Because a storm doesn’t always bring rain, sometimes it just adds a layer of destruction. One more thing to break you down, to tear down the surviving remnants and scatter them far away.
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Holding On To God In Spiritual Dry Seasons
Isolation is its own kind of danger, when we find ourselves alone in the wasteland it is so easy to fall prey to the devil’s lies. The dry season steals away everything that we rely on, whittles away at the things that make us feel secure. Just like when the dry season sets in and the grass dies, then small plants and on and on until even some of the trees wither beneath the scorching sun. Our hopes, our dreams crumble to dust in our hands leaving the once fertile soil of our lives barren and parched. And our grip holding on to God can start to slip.
Sometimes it’s hard to recognize that we are in the dry season, all was sunshine and roses, and then suddenly it wasn’t. You can’t quite put your finger on what exactly has changed, but something has. You know you should be praying, but you don’t know how to pray for this. You are tired, battered, road-weary and so exhausted of the fight that it feels like it has slipped into the very marrow of your bones. You long for the peace that you once found but it eludes you, teasing another step out of you and laughing as you fall to your knees. This is the dry season. But can I let you in on something? The dry season serves its purpose just like the downpour.
Holding On To God When Life Is Hard
The dry season strips away all of the clichés, the shallow phrases, and burns away the drudge that has taken root in our lives, clearing away and making room. It tests our foundations, it forges our faith, and leaves only what is solid. It reveals where we are truly holding on to God, and It’s painful, in many ways it’s a breaking but it’s also a re-making. Just as the storm can chip away at the stuff that has been left unchecked in our lives, or never fully dealt with the dry season forces them into view. It peels back the layers and reveals our motives that lie beneath.
We can’t hide from ourselves in the dry season, no catchy Bible verse or feel-good saying can get us through it. We have to go deeper, find the buried springs, and let them gush forth in our lives. It’s a process, slowly peeling away each layer and letting God deal with it before we can move on to the next and the next.
Choosing To Hang On To God
The dry season changes us all in some way or another, it’s our decision if it is for the better or for the worse. If we keep holding on to God, or if we let go. The truth is we can’t get through this season without God because He is the water, we are so desperate for. We can’t resurrect the dead places of our soul, or bring new life to the barren wasteland. It’s not in our power to bring the rain, to bring restoration, to bring healing- but it is entirely in His.
You can not trust your feelings to be a compass in this season, because so often our feelings are inaccurate. We feel like God has abandoned us so we trek out on our own trying to do it all in our own strength and put as much distance as we can between us- but I promise you, no matter how alone you feel, no matter how lost you are feeling, no matter how far you’ve gone He has not left you. He has not lost sight of you. And you can never go so far that you can’t fall back into His arms.
Learning To Rely On God In The Dry Season
The dry season is so much more than unmaking, it’s restoration. It’s finding healing, it’s learning to rely on Him every day of our lives and rooting our hope deep into His word so that when the dry season arrives when the storms rage around us when our whole world feels like it is going up in smoke we can stand strong. So that we can stand as a monument to God’s power even when our hands are empty so that we can be a glistening drop of hope in someone else’s dry season.
Never underestimate what God is doing in the hard season, out of the greatest adversity in your life comes the greatest testament of God’s faithfulness. So keep holding on to God, His strength is found when you are at the end of your rope, and you just want to give up. Cling to Him in the dry season. Don’t give up now! You have come so far, been through so much, got back up over and over again. Trust Him one more time, throw yourself into His waiting arms, and let Him be the rain you so desperately need in this season. Nothing and no one can fill the chasm in your heart but Him.
Holding On To God When Life Is Overwhelming
You can not be lost in this place. In this season. At this moment. Your father is God over the storm, but He is also God in the dry season. His power didn’t end when the sun began beating down, or when the storm clouds faded from view. Keep holding on to God, He is the same as He was in the storm, as He was before the storm. He is the same God who met you where you were, the same God that drew you out into the deep water so your faith would grow tall. He has not changed, only your perspective.
Walking through this season lets us recognize everything that we’ve held back from Him, all the places that we are still trying to do it on our own. All the places where our motives aren’t what they should be, or where our heart is no longer in it. Where our worship, our service has become a habit instead of something we did out of love.
Holding On To God When You Feel Alone
In Genesis 16:13 we meet Hagar alone in the wilderness with her young son, abandoned. Weary, without a chance. She’s come to the end of her rope, those that were supposed to care for her have betrayed her. But it’s right there in the wasteland that God meets her and she declares one of the most important things that we can learn in our dry season “You are the God who sees me,”.
Even when the world has walked away, your family has abandoned you, your friends have betrayed you He will never leave you. He sees you! You sitting right there holding this book, reading these words. He sees you, He sees every broken place, He sees every gaping chasm, He knows every scar, He’s counted every tear wept in this wilderness and you are His precious child. Beloved. Treasured, and cherished. Keep holding on to God as you walk through this season.
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