To The One Feeling Kinda Bleh: Part 2
Have you ever felt bleh in your spiritual life? I’m sure you have, we all go through those seasons so don’t pretend to not know what I’m talking about.
For me, bleh meant I felt rather empty, like God was somehow farther away than before, and I had lost my passion and desire to live for Him and spend time with Him.
Lemme tell you friends, that is not a fun place to be in. Not only do you feel like a crappy Christian, but it also messes with every other aspect of your life and pretty soon, you just feel like an all-around crappy person!
I had mentioned in Part 1 that this season of bleh was caused by burnout during the last few months of my college career, but what I’ve come to realize is that I probably burned out because I was drifting away from the Lord. I’m not saying I turned away from God completely or was angry at Him, I was simply ignoring Him, not spending time with Him or leaning on Him in any way.
Now I know everyone’s walk is different, but every time someone drifts away it is because somewhere along the line, they started believing the big fat lies of the devil. These are the ones I fell for-
Big Fat Lie #1: God knows I’m really busy and stressed right now so it will be ok if I don’t spend any time with Him.
WRONG!!! Those busy and stressful times in life are when we need Him the most! There is no excuse good enough for not giving Him at least a couple minutes of our time. Even a 5 minute devotion makes a world of difference!
Big Fat Lie #2: I can conquer this on my own.
WRONG!!! We weren’t meant to go through this life on our own! “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11: 28–30
Big Fat Lie #3: God ignores me when I ignore Him.
WRONG! WRONG!! WRONG!!! He doesn’t ignore us, He pursues us! He is the shepherd searching for that one lost sheep (Matthew 18:10–14) God was and is continually lining up conversations with my friends to remind me of this. “Nat, God is pursuing you. Let Him.”
Here’s the hardest part of all this though- Satan keeps feeding you those lies. He doesn’t want you to be in tune with God and living for Him. He wants you to drift away, ignore Him, and live as if you are god of your own life. And guess what? Every time we believe one of those lies, we are helping Satan win. Don’t help him win! He’s a jerk! In fact, I wrote a whole post about how much of a jerk he is, read it here.
Hang with me as I switch gears just a bit here and tell you about one big way God spoke to me during this time. He spoke through His Word. Shocker, right?! Of course His is going to speak to us through His Word! That’s why He wrote it! So go pick up your Bible and start reading! (after you finish reading this that is)
He spoke to me through Psalm 63, specifically verses 1–5. Here’s what He said-
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” That’s exactly how I had been feeling! Dry and empty. Weary but stuck and not sure where to go from there.
“I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.” Meaning I’ve seen what God can do. I know how good it is with Him. I know what it feels like to be close to Him and walking with Him. I’ve seen His faithfulness in my own life, particularly last summer when I went to Guatemala; I’ve seen His faithfulness in the lives of those around me, especially at camp and church; and I’ve seen His faithfulness in His Word, in the countless stories and characters that fill those pages and point to Him. That’s just the truth of who He is.
“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will lift my hands.” David is basically saying that even though He doesn’t feel it right now, he knows God is good so he will praise Him anyway. That’s what our attitude should be as well. There are things in life that we just don’t feel like doing all the time, but we suck it up and do it anyway because we should and we know it’s good for us. Like eating salad or doing your homework. And even though you start out not really enjoying it, you may learn to love salad or you may discover a passion for learning. God is the same way. He will change your heart to desire Him more, but you’ve got to do your part even when you don’t feel like it.
“My soul WILL be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” This is my favorite part! Do you see that “will” in all caps?! That’s something you can cling to! God WILL fill you. He WILL be there for you. He WILL satisfy you. Those aren’t questions up for debate, those are PROMISES STRAIGHT FROM GOD! Go to Him and He WILL…
If you know me, you know I love hymns. Like seriously, I could sing them all the time. Well the one that comes to mind here is ‘On Christ the Solid Rock.’
“On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” He is the only one we can lean on with all the weight of life. Everything and everyone else will bend and break under the pressure because they weren’t designed to bear it…not God. He is strong enough to carry us and lift us back up.
HE IS THE SOLID ROCK THAT WILL SATISFY.
If any of this sounds like you (or even if it doesn’t) here is something great to listen to (or watch). The Porch, a young adult ministry in Dallas recently did a series called Self Care and it was SOOO GOOD! Many of the points they make tie right into getting out of this feeling of bleh. They have a podcast on Spotify or here is the link to the videos.
