There is no doubt that we can go through spiritual slumps from time to time. Maybe you feel your prayers are repetitive, or you aren’t picking up your bible to read as much as you normally do. I know I feel some of those things when I am not diligently seeking the Lord in my everyday life. It can be hard to stay motivated when you are waiting on unanswered prayer, your trials aren’t getting any better, or life just feels stale. Despite those feelings, these are times when God is the most present in our lives. There is no situation we go through that He isn’t aware of, even if we dont communicate it to Him in Prayer. That thought alone should be comforting to us, we never have to face anything alone. God is always actively working in our lives, even if the work is so small you don’t notice it right away. It can be even harder to notice God if we aren’t looking for Him and if we just keep going through the motions.Taking the time to read a devotion is already a sign that your heart is in the right place to reach out to God and understand the season you are in. I want to center this devotion on a passage from Jeremiah,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”-Jeremiah 29:11-18
This letter was written to the Israelites in the midst of their exile to Babylon, a trial that these people inevitably had to face. Despite it all, God was their only source of hope for the promised land to come. They were instructed to seek and find God and in Him they will know peace and be delivered. Calling out to God should always be our first instinct when things happen to us, good or bad. But why can it be hard to do so? Are we seeking something that is in place of God? Spending all our spare time on social media and so easily letting time go by? Maybe we have bad habits we consult with when things are rough. The Israelites surely had bad habits when things got rough which resulted in them seemingly worshiping everything but Christ. But despite all their disobedience, Christ was ready to give any of them who called upon his name peace and joy. Coming to him with a sincere heart of repentance and recognizing we don’t have as much control over our lives as we think is essential. No matter what trial you are in, it’s not bigger than the work of Jesus, which has the power to forgive, save, and keep you going strong on this race of life. Going to God just to ask for blessings without first seeing our faults and sins, will do nothing. Its acknowledged in Isaiah that this approach will only make God turn away from hearing us our prayers,
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”- Isaiah 59:2
We are the ones that need the Lord much more than he could ever need us (Acts 17:25). He is the breath of life (Job 33:4), how can we find that elsewhere? How can anything else save us from our iniquities, or give us the peace and rest that only comes from the Lord, especially when going through a hard or stale time in life. These are the truths that we know, but are we applying them and living out what we believe? It’s easy to point out sin and fault in others, but can we look at ourselves with the same lens and say we are sinless? Of course not, but thankfully we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and can give our hearts the jumpstarts it needs.
Read and pray through some of these passages this week as you seek and find Christ in the midst of your current season and be Revived.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Galatians 6:8-10
Psalm 34:4-5
Hebrews 11:6
Psalm 63:1
Isaiah 55:8-9