Walking Through Spiritual Valleys Sample

Back to the Basics  

Trusting God’s plan is the only secret I know in the gentle art of not freaking out. — Lysa Terkeurst 

After reading the first two days of this Plan, our hope is that you’ll be encouraged that this spiritual drought you’re wading through is common to all followers of Christ. Not only that, but knowing that our Savior endured hardships and felt alone while He lived on this earth will hopefully give you a spiritual boost.

So, what do we do when we’re spiritually dry? There are things we can practice to help us climb out of our spiritual pit. Here are some thoughts to consider: 

Lean Back
The very first thing we need to do in this challenging season is simply to rest in God. He is our place of safety and our shelter from devastating storms. His arms are very capable of handling our deepest hurts. So, lean back. Cry out to Him to Him if you want. Just know He’s got you.

Faith First
We have to trust what our faith tells us and demand that our feelings take a back seat. It’s been said that we often believe our doubts and doubt our beliefs. We need to flip that around. Remembering and claiming the truth we’ve learned in the rich spiritual seasons of our lives will carry us through the valleys when doubts come our way. 

Evaluate Your Influences
When you find yourself in a spiritual deficit, evaluate what your biggest influences are. What are you watching or listening to? Who are you spending time with? It’s wise to assess who and what is investing in us whether we know they are or not.

Spiritual Practices
Isn’t it funny that the things we don’t feel like doing during our spiritual dry spells are the things we actually need to do to help us fill back up spiritually? It feels like work to read the Bible, pray, worship, or even go to church, so we stop. When we do, we get even more spiritually malnourished. We must choose to invest in our spiritual comeback even when our feelings are screaming for us not to. 

We never have to earn God’s love or acceptance with our actions. Anything we do to stay on course spiritually is just to grow closer to Him. To get out of our spiritually dry season, we do the things we’ve done when we were in a healthy season. Because when we do that, we’ll eventually fill back up.  

Reflect

• In your dry season, what role have your feelings had? Have they dictated your faith or were you allowing your faith to govern your feelings?
• When you are struggling spiritually, what is the first spiritual practice that you tend to neglect? Commit to God that you will continue to spend time with Him even when you feel He’s far away.