Pleasing God Podcast
Pleasing God Podcast
Faith in the Dry Season
Are you feeling spiritually empty, going through religious motions, or struggling to find joy in your Christian walk? You're not alone. Spiritual dryness is a universal experience that affects every believer—yet we rarely talk about it openly.
This candid exploration of spiritual drought sheds light on what many Christians silently endure. Host Jonathan Sole shares his struggles with spiritual dryness as a pastor and breaks down the common symptoms: empty prayers, Bible reading that becomes a mere duty, and that nagging sense that God seems distant. Through powerful biblical examples like the raw honesty of Psalm 42 and Elijah's dramatic crash after his mountaintop victory, we see that even the most faithful believers experienced seasons of spiritual emptiness.
The episode doesn't just name the problem—it offers practical biblical remedies for renewal. From returning to God's Word, which "revives the soul" (Psalm 19:7), to making honest prayer a priority to the power of community and accountability, these scriptural pathways lead out of the desert. Most importantly, we're reminded that God remains faithful even in our driest seasons, often using them to deepen our hunger for Him and produce spiritual growth we wouldn't experience otherwise.
Whether in a spiritual desert or walking alongside someone who is, this episode provides the biblical perspective and practical tools needed to navigate toward renewal. Remember, spiritual dryness is not evidence of abandonment but is often part of God's sanctifying work. Questions about your own spiritual journey? Reach out to questions@pleasinggodpodcast.org and continue the conversation.
Stock Music provided by wolfgangwoehrle, from Pond5
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God podcast, a show focused on helping Christians to think biblically, engage practically and live faithfully for the glory of God. I'm your host, jonathan Soul, and on this episode I want to talk about overcoming spiritual dryness. I think this is a common issue in the Christian life and might be some that you know we don't like to talk about, maybe even a kind of a taboo subject about going through spiritual dryness. We like to show you know on Sundays, when we come together as a church, that we've got everything kind of put together, and to talk about feeling dry, barren, in the spiritual life. It requires a level of vulnerability that a lot of Christians don't seem to have. Or they look around at others and they think, man, they got their spiritual life together. You're assuming that they're always reading their Bible, they're praying, they have healthy marriages, they're commuting with God on a regular basis, and you might find, and you look at your own life and say, well, that's not true with me. I think the reality is that spiritual dryness is more prevalent and less talked about than people think, and so I want to focus on this subject because I know it's relevant even in my own life, even as a pastor, and if I can go through some of these things and experience seasons of dryness, I'm sure many other Christians do as well. So I want to focus on the subject. I want to focus on overcoming spiritual dryness by identifying what it is, what are some common causes, and then looking at some biblical remedies for how we can overcome these kind of desert seasons or just times of feeling barren. And hopefully, by recording the show and talking about this subject, it kind of shines the light on a rather dark area and is a source of encouragement for you as you listen and you say, hey, I'm not alone, I'm not the only one who's been experiencing this dryness or feeling distant from God or whatever it might be, and again, that it would encourage you to press on in the Christian life.
Speaker 1:The reality is, as I've said, is that spiritual dryness is something every believer faces at some point. We do not always live on the mountaintop and we should not always live in the valley, but there are times where we are at both places. And spiritual dryness what does that mean? It feels like our prayers are empty. You ever pray and you're actually in the midst of praying. Wonder, is there any point to what I'm doing, do my prayers just bounce off the ceiling and come back down. They feel empty. Bible reading becomes a duty, not a delight. It feels just routine. That would probably be step one of dryness, until the point that Bible reading becomes infrequent and God seems distant from you.
Speaker 1:If you can relate to any of these three, these are symptoms of spiritual dryness. But I want to encourage you because the scriptures give us guidance on how to rekindle our faith. So, as I just said, what does spiritual dryness look like? Lack of prayer, sometimes it's even apathy towards the scriptures. You read a passage of scripture that at one point really moved your heart. You go back to visit that sometime later and you just see words on a page. There seems to be no power, no movement in your life when it comes to the word of God and again you feel distant from God. Your Christianity is kind of just going through the motions. You struggle with assurance. All of these things are examples of spiritual dryness and but, like I said, it is not an uncommon experience among Christians. In reality it's not an uncommon experience about anyone, from anyone who walks with God, who knows God.
Speaker 1:In the scriptures we have examples of spiritual dryness in God's people. I think about the examples in scripture. In Psalm 42, we have an example of one who is struggling with spiritual dryness. Familiar Psalm. It reads as the deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, o God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. So here the psalmist is saying there's a desire to God, there's a hunger for God, but there's trouble, there's a dryness in his life. My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. So the psalmist here is saying there was once a time where there was loud shouts, great joy in my life when it came among the people of God, leading in procession to God. But not right now.
Speaker 1:Verse five why are you cast down, oh my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? He's having a conversation with himself. He is going through this barren spiritual dryness. Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon and from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me by day, the Lord commands his steadfast love. At night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy, as with a deadly wound in my bones? My adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long where is your God? Why are you cast down, o my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? This is Psalm 42, is the Psalm of spiritual dryness, and the struggle is real. That's what I love about the Psalms is that they peel back and give us an inner look at the inner man and the battle that goes on. Some Psalms are of great praise, lament, andrecatory. Some are just crying out to God in raw, real, emotional language. And that's what we have here is one who is going through spiritual dryness, but again, it's not just the psalmist in this way. Also, elijah is another example of one who went through great spiritual dryness In 1 Kings, chapter 19,.
Speaker 1:This passage comes on the heels of this great spiritual victory where there's the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and the prophets of Baal proved to be worshipers of a false god. And Elijah then destroys, kills the prophets of Baal, and there's this great sense of victory. God has vindicated his name. Elijah shows himself to be the man of God for that time, and you think he's riding on a high. Well, after highs come lows. And in 1 Kings, chapter 19, we read that Ahab, who was the king, told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying so may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow, she's threatening to kill him for what he has done. His great spiritual victory is now turning into a difficult season in his life. So he was afraid and he ran. And he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servants there. But then for Elijah, it says but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he asked that he might die, saying it is enough. Now, o Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.
Speaker 1:Another dryness, another low point that we see in the scriptures of people who genuinely love God, servants of God walk with God. And so if we can look at the Psalms, we can look at Elijah and say these people struggled with spiritual dryness. The reality is so can we? So what are some common causes of spiritual dryness that the believer can face? Well, first and foremost and some of these are caused by ourself and some of them are not through no fault of our own, but let's just highlight a few.
Speaker 1:One common cause of spiritual dryness is unconfessed sins. Psalm 32, verses three through five, reads for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groanings all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Here, this is the season in which David is covering his sin with Bathsheba, and we recognize that unconfessed sin can lead to seasons of spiritual dryness.
Speaker 1:Another common cause for dry seasons is the neglect of spiritual disciplines, and this is self-inflicted. When prayer becomes more sporadic in our lives, bible reading is hit and miss. When we kind of bounce in and out of fellowship, the corporate worship, the gathering, and there's no consistency of discipline in our life, the outcome is spiritual dryness. There's not going to be spiritual vitality if we neglect the means of grace that God has given us for our spiritual lives prayer, the word, the fellowship of the saints. Another common cause is busyness and distraction, and I could record so many shows, so many episodes on this subject, and I have done a couple because it's such a real thing, especially to us in the Western world. Our lives are so busy and we fill our lives with so much that we leave very little margin. We teeter on burnout all the time. So busyness and distractions, life's demands, are just pulling us away from intentional time with God.
Speaker 1:Another common cause of spiritual dryness, which might be no cause to our own, is trials and suffering. When we face trials and suffering in this life, usually there's two outcomes and there's two roads that we go down. Trials and suffering either make us better or they make us bitter. And if they make us bitter, that's when we tend to get angry at those around us. We get angry at God and the blame game starts. Why is this happening to me? Woe is me. And it becomes a martyr syndrome, and this can lead to spiritual dryness as we're looking around and just kind of wallowing in self-pity, and also spiritual warfare. There are times where the enemy attacks us and these attempts are to weaken our faith, and sometimes they win. Sometimes, through spiritual warfare, we go through spiritual dryness instead of leaning on the word, prayer and the fellowship of the saints. So these are some common causes.
Speaker 1:Well then, if we identify spiritual dryness, we think about common causes of it. What are some biblical remedies, common causes of it? What are some biblical remedies? Again, you know we are trying to think biblically, engage practically and live faithfully for the glory of God. So what does the Bible tell us of how we can engage with biblical remedies for spiritual renewal to come out of that dry season?
Speaker 1:Psalm 19 is a fantastic psalm to get to and think about when it comes to seasons of dryness. Psalm 19, verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure. Enlight wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The psalmist is telling us here that returning to the word of God is a means, is a biblical remedy for spiritual renewal. It is the word of God that revives our soul. So all of these statements, the law of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, he's saying, the whole of scripture, the whole of God's word, is good and brings about spiritual renewal. So if you are struggling with dryness right now, return to the word of God where God speaks to you. Return to the word of God where God speaks to you.
Speaker 1:Another remedy for spiritual renewal comes in Psalm 63. Psalm 63, verse 1. Now here's David once again, when he's in the wilderness of Judea. He writes this and says oh God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Here he's saying I desire you, god. And so, when we are in these seasons of dryness, make honest prayer. The Lord knows what you're going through, but it is so good for our own souls to articulate it. So make honest prayer, bring your dryness to God. God, I feel distant. God, I feel so barren. My Christianity is nothing more than just seeming like going through the motions, like I'm a carcass Christian. Does God not desire to answer that prayer?
Speaker 1:One practical, really practical way in which we can think about spiritual renewal is simply confession and repentance. Oftentimes it might just be that simple that there is unconfessed sin in our life. We are harboring something in our hearts and we wonder, you know, why does God not listen to my prayers? Why does it feel so barren? Because we're living with unconfessed, unresolved sin in our lives. In 1 John 1,. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's renewal. But we must confess, we must humble ourselves in repentance and to turn away. Repentance can and should possibly be even a daily discipline of our lives.
Speaker 1:Here's a fourth remedy for spiritual renewal worship and thanksgiving. We need to shift the focus at times from ourselves to God. If I look and live inwardly, I have much room for dryness and discouragement. But if I can get my eyes off of myself, my circumstances and sometimes even just how I am feeling, and I can look outward and upward, it makes a difference. Psalm 100, verse 4,. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name, be thankful, remember all his benefits, preach the gospel to yourself.
Speaker 1:Do it in in community, and that's the fifth remedy for spiritual renewal community and accountability. The author of hebrews emphasizes this greatly. In hebrews, chapter 10, verses 24, 25, we read and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day draw near. This is so important. We need to be in fellowship, in community and in accountability.
Speaker 1:A preventative measure for dryness is to have brothers or sisters in your life that ask you hard questions, but not because they're doing surveillance. They want to hold you accountable, just as you hold them accountable, and this is a means of grace that God has given us in the Christian community. So be a part of a local church, don't just be an attender of a local church, be involved in that church and be in accountability relationships with your brothers and sisters. It is preventative measures against spiritual dryness, so, but God is faithful. Isaiah 41.10,. Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Remember, god is faithful even in the dry seasons of your life, and God uses these dry seasons for our growth.
Speaker 1:James, chapter 1,. Count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Sometimes your spiritual dryness is meant for your good, so that as you go through that season of dryness, it creates a greater hunger, a greater thirst, a greater longing for God, and as you come out of that season, you are far better than you were when you went in. Even spiritual dryness can be used as a means to sanctify us, to make us more like Jesus.
Speaker 1:So keep pressing on, even when you don't feel like it. Remember faith is about trust, not just our emotions. So let me encourage you. Evaluate your spiritual walk. Think about where you are right now. Are there things in your life that are contributing to dryness? What can you do about engaging in spiritual renewal? What practices can you put in place this week? Return to the word if you haven't Give the Lord honest prayer, even if it's through your tears, and you just got to go and hide in the closet wherever you got to go.
Speaker 1:Be honest in your prayers Confession and repentance where it's necessary. Search my heart, o God. Commit yourself to worship and thanksgiving even when you don't feel like it, and do not neglect the community and accountability that is found in God's people. I hope, if you are struggling with spiritual dryness, this is a source of encouragement for you and that you can take some of these things, apply them in your life so that you can walk in a spiritual renewal and then help others who are going through this season of dryness in their life. I want to thank you for listening to the Pleasing God Podcast. If you have any questions, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach out at questions at pleasinggodpodcastorg. And remember 1 Thessalonians 4.3,. This is the will of God, your sanctification.
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