A couple of weeks ago my wife Pam and I had the chance to travel with the Jr. High/High School bands to NKU for a band festival. After the morning festival, the entire group went to Kings Island to spend the rest of the day. Now band festivals are okay, but for us, the big draw of the trip was the chance to go to Kings Island. Pam and I both love Kings Island. When we were in college in Cincinnati, we scrimped and saved our money and bought season passes to the park. But we got to thinking and it had been 12 years since we had been together.
After the festival all the kids were keyed up about going to the park, and so were we. I already knew where I wanted to start. I went with the church youth group last year, and I found a roller coaster I loved, Face Off. We went into the gate and made a “bee line” for the line. It was kind of long, but I knew it would be worth it. Within 5 minutes of getting into line an announcement came over that the ride was going to be temporarily shut down. They said we could either leave or hang around and it would be fixed shortly. What had looked like it was going to be a long wait got shorter as a quarter of the people left. It wasn’t long before the ride resumed operation.
We wound our way up to the front of the line. When we got near the boarding point, I talked Pam into riding in the front car which was an extra 2 or 3 waits, but it was worth it for the added thrill. With one pair of people in front of us they came over the speaker and announced another temporary shut-down. We weren’t too concerned, we had been here before and at this point there was no turning back. We got more concerned as we watched the people in the operator’s booth. First one mechanic, then another, then a guy who looked more managerial, and finally a guy in a tie came to the booth. It didn’t look good. One hour and 46 minutes after getting in line, they came over the speaker and announced that the ride was going to be shut down indefinitely. Not only were we going to have to give up our hope of riding “Face Off,” but now we were last in line to get out of the ride.
To be quite honest, that kind of took the wind out of our sails for the Kings Island trip. After that we noticed the weather was bad, cold and windy. We were each assigned a post at the center of the park for 1 hour, so that cut 2 hours out of our already limited park time. What we had anticipated being like our college trips to the theme park wound up being not nearly as exciting. We started singing the blues.
As I looked at the passage for this week’s message, I couldn’t help but think about that trip. Psalm 42 is a lament. You might say it’s a sad song, a down in the dumps kind of prayer where the Sons of Korah sing the blues about things not turning out quite the way they anticipated. I’m going to read this Psalm, but I want you to notice the way it is written. Not only is the Psalm directed to God, a prayer, but there are several places where the Psalmist talks to himself. (Do you ever do that? Sure you do, everyone does). I think we are going to notice some important techniques for overcoming the blah’s in our spiritual life when things don’t seem like they should.
(Read Psalm 42:1-11)
Did you hear the disillusionment in the words? The Psalmist is struggling because things didn’t work out the way it seemed they should. At one time life was great, he was leading the worship services in the house of God. Lately though things haven’t been so good. He says, “My tears have been my food.” He feels rejected and neglected by God. He’s wondering why he is so downcast, but he still is and he can’t help it. I want us to talk about those times this morning, so that we don’t get stuck in them too long. God can use even those difficult dry times to draw us closer to Him. Let’s notice 3 ways to get out of them.
1. Realize That Everybody Suffers from the Spiritual Blahs.
You know, there are some Christian people that you meet that seem like they just have it all together. They never seem down, they almost always seem to walk about 3 inches off the ground. Over the years I’ve had the chance to talk to some of those people “off the record,” in good times and bad, and you know what I’ve found out? They have spiritually dry times, times when their heart is cold to spiritual things, when they have felt completely empty inside. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt as if your prayers were only lip service, and that the words you lifted up to God only bounced off the ceiling? Have you ever just gone through the motions of going to church and reading the Bible, but it seemed like wasted time? I have. It’s no fun! But, it is part of everybody’s Christian life. If you’ve struggled, you are in the company of John the Baptist, Elijah, and King David who all struggled with down times.
So the first thing to recognize is that when you are going through spiritually dry times, that’s normal. You aren’t inferior because you aren’t always Mr. or Ms. Super-spiritual. One of the great things about the Bible is that it recognizes real life, and not just ideal life. Psalm 42 is a prayer about the down times of life because we need to know how to cope.
2. Identify The Source of Your Spiritual Dryness.
Now just because everybody has difficult times spiritually doesn’t mean we want to be satisfied with them. We need to do something about moving out of them. The Christian life shouldn’t be a life of drudgery, but one of joy and peace, and when you aren’t experiencing those things you need to figure out why. Now I can’t diagnose why everyone is struggling like some kind of group therapy session, but I’ve noticed that there are a few common threads that might help you identify what the problem is.
a. Unrealistic Expectations
Quite honestly, this is probably the most common one. It seems like this is the one that the Psalmist is dealing with. Sometimes when we are a person of faith, we think things should work out in our favor. The tendency is to believe that because we go to church, follow God, and try to do right that things will all go smoothly. But reality never matches up to that. The Psalmist had some good times where there was joy and thanksgiving that was a part of his experience (v. 4), but that doesn’t last forever. It is unrealistic to think that everything in life is going to be smooth and easy. Life is going to throw you some curves, things aren’t going to always work out in your favor, and if you don’t expect that then you are going to be disappointed. For people of faith, one of the places that is most common to point our disappointment is at God. However, God never promised to shield us from tough times, He simply promised to carry us through them.
b. Distractions/Busyness
Sometimes we just get too much stuff going on in our life, and the result is that we get worn out. This happened to me a few years back. I was preaching 2 sermons on Sunday, teaching a mid-week class at church, and developing and teaching a 2 hour college course. It seemed like every time I turned around I was standing up in front of people talking. I got tired of hearing my own voice. What I noticed happening was that I was talking a lot, but not saying much. Somebody said, “If the oven door is always open nothing ever gets very hot.” Some people can maintain that kind of schedule, but I couldn’t at that time anyway. I rarely prayed, and the only time I read my Bible was trying to figure out what to say to others, never to let God speak to me. You can get so busy, even doing good things, that God becomes distant. When that happens, you are setting yourself up for trouble.
c. Disobedience
Sometimes, quite honestly, the reason our spiritual life becomes dry and God seems distant is because we are holding Him at arm’s length. When our lives are filled with sin, it is impossible for us to feel close to God. You can’t hold God and sin close at the same time. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Often spiritual dryness is a danger sign that there is some sinful practice in our life that is distancing us from God.
d. Spiritual Laziness and Carelessness
At times we just get lazy with our spiritual lives. We don’t put any energy into our relationship with God, and that shows up. We get slack on our attendance at worship, and we let our giving slip. Our Bible gathers dust, and we don’t fellowship with other Christians. Paul said, “Train yourself to be Godly.” It takes work to maintain any relationship, and that includes our relationship with God. In our small group we talked about how easy it was to talk ourselves out of coming to the meetings, but whenever we did we were never disappointed. It’s really easy to get lazy in our spiritual life, and when we do we can expect to suffer the spiritual blahs.
Now, if you catch yourself in a spiritual slump, these are the things to do. Realize that you aren’t alone. Everybody gets down and you aren’t abnormal. Second, identify the problem. Figure out if your expectations are unrealistic, or you are too busy, or if your life is filled with disobedience, or even if you have simply gotten lazy. Chances are, you will be able to recognize one of those things pretty readily. If you can’t, find a trusted Christian friend that can help you.
3. Turn To God and Seek Him Earnestly.
Now that sounds easy, but it’s tough. It means that you have to take some steps that won’t be easy. If you are too busy, you are going to have to give some things up. If you are too lazy you are going to have to put forth some effort. If you are disobedient you are going to have to repent and give up the sin in your life. If your expectations are unrealistic, you are going to have to adjust your perspective to fit God’s, not expect Him to adjust the world to fit yours. The fact is, the Psalmist kept calling himself back to God with his “self-talk.”
(Note 42:5, 11, 43:5) One of the truths that I have found is that when I recognize that my hope rests in God, priorities get straightened out and joy and peace become part of my experience again.
In the book of Revelation there is a famous passage that is often used at invitation time. Rev. 3:20 says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Many times that is used as an invitation for non-believers to respond to Christ, but the fact is that verse is directed at Christians. Jesus is speaking to the church at Laodicea, a church that he says has become “lukewarm.” He is telling them that He is ready to have intimate fellowship with them, but they must open the door by desiring that relationship. The fact is, often when we are going through a spiritual dry time, it is because we need to open the door to Christ and let Him into every area of our life. If we earnestly pursue God and a relationship with Him, He will be there to lovingly welcome us into His arms.
(Listening to sports talk show about Jose Conseco & Ken Camminiti who spoke of high steroid use in MLB.
Caller: “Wouldn’t you use steroids for $30 million
Talk show host: “What are you living for?”)
That’s a great question we all need to confront ourselves with. “What are you living for?” When we get those priorities confused, we get off track. God often uses dry times in our spiritual lives to call us back to Him. He knocks at the door and we have to answer. Will you answer His call?
