Dry Seasons of Life

Day 120: Psalm 79-83

My eyes are dry. 
My faith is old. 
My heart is hard. 
My prayers are cold.
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to you and dead to me. 

But what can be done
For an old heart like mine?
Soften it up
With oil and wine.
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love.
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood.
(Song by Keith Green)

Have you ever felt like your faith was lukewarm? I once heard a preacher talk about having a lukewarm faith. Using the passage in the New Testament about being either hot or cold but not lukewarm, he said that it was better to not believe at all than to have a lukewarm faith. In fact, I still remember his words to this day: "Get HOT. Be COLD. Or GET OUT!" The message was that apathy is the worst place to be when it comes to faith.

But it's very easy to fall into a pattern of apathy and not even know it. Maybe Sunday morning church is what faith is about to you. Or maybe faith is about your own personal journey towards Christ rather than gathering with other Christians. Maybe you go to church each time the doors are open. You do good deeds and you read your Bible. You give money to God, and you teach your children about Jesus. Regardless of where you are and what your definition of Christianity is, it's easy to get "stuck in a rut" where you don't feel anything, where you wonder what the point of it all is anyway.

When you are feeling like you don't have a relationship with God, that you don't belong, or that your faith is all dried up, I encourage you to turn to Psalm 80. Psalm 80 won't solve all your problems or give you the courage to "Get HOT," but it will provide you with a way to talk to God in the midst of this dry faith (or sin, too). The author begs God to bring he and the other Israelites back to Him. To restore their faith and to save them.

God has saved me. He has saved you, too. I hope we will all remember this truth during the dry seasons of life so that the rainy season will come soon.