Christian faith is a gift to mankind. As believers, we take as gospel truth the most momentous event on earth: Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we have an eternal future in heaven, and then rose from the dead in fulfillment of the scriptures. It is called the Good News because that’s just what it is — good news — for each one of us! As John 3:16 joyously explains, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
That is why it is especially dismaying and frustrating when the faithful experience lulls. We cannot hear God’s voice anymore, nor can we feel His presence in our lives. We pray and pray, only to seemingly receive a numbing “radio silence” in return, and it feels like our fate rests solely in our own failures and victories. We are human beings, after all, and life is fluid; our feelings and thoughts go up and down and around like a roller coaster, based on events and experiences we encounter daily, hourly, and even moment by moment.
Life can feel very bleak indeed for busy, stressed believers.
What Does the Bible Say About Spiritual Discouragement?
There is good news to be found in these doldrums of the spirit! Guess what — God understands these times, because He created us, and there is not anything new to Him. Proof of this understanding can be found in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 42:3: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.” Isaiah, who prophesied on both the law and the gospel, was explaining that those of weak faith or little spiritual knowledge are still under God’s loving, watchful care.
God gave this message to Isaiah for the people of his day and also for us, today, in 2021. We are so deeply loved, even in our weaknesses, periods of skepticism, and scriptural ignorance. Not all of us are theological giants, and yet we are still intimately, singularly loved! Isaiah 43:2 reminds us, "When you go through deep waters. I will be with you.” Again, through the prophet, God is saying He understands we go through hard times, yet we are never alone.
What Happens When We Try to Fix a “Rut” by Ourselves
Some of my deepest spiritual ruts can come when I forget to give over my life daily to Jesus Christ. Like a horse held back too much by a nervous rider’s tight reins, I chomp at the bit, wanting to just make things work out. I work harder and harder, achieving less and less. Whether it is a work assignment, an important relationship, or my faith – when I go it alone, I fall pitifully short.
When I start to let go of my facade of control, however, things smooth out. When a rider relaxes his reins, the horse will often slow down and relax, feeling the rider’s confidence. When I explain my true feelings to the Lord in prayer, confident He will understand them, He responds. If my prayer is, “God, I can’t feel you, I can’t hear you — are You there? I need You to come into my life today and help me work out this mess and get me out of this rut; I just cannot do it alone,” I have invited God to renew and sustain me.
I love earrings, especially dangly earrings and hoops. My go-to earrings are hoops inside of hoops, and they often get tangled. I have stood in front of my dresser in frustration so many times, trying to get these earrings to straighten out, even using a bobby pin or sewing needle to separate the tiny golden hoops. Guess what I learned, quite by accident? If I hold these earrings up over my dresser and drop them, they magically straighten out, all by themselves (This has saved me so much angst and time getting ready).
It is this way with God. If we don’t fight our spiritual ruts with self-reliance, but instead let go, asking God to enter in and take control, we will straighten out. Your very honest prayer — I can’t hear You or feel You, Lord, and I am in a rut of despair — will be heard, and God will act on it, in His all-knowing way and time.
How Times of Spiritual Despair Can Benefit Us
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament remind us that nothing is wasted with God, not even our painful lulls of faith. Psalm 119:71 says, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” When we are delivered from our rut, we cling to God even tighter, appreciating His sovereignty in our life even more. Romans 8:18 reads, “The pain that you've been feeling, can't compare to the joy that's coming.” Any mother who has just given birth can attest to this reality when she holds her newborn baby safely in her arms. Similarly, we can remind ourselves that this life is transitory, and we will soon be with God in heaven where there is no pain, no distress, no anxiety, and not a single trace of these painful periods of spiritual depression or even disbelief. We must remember our joy to come, and live like we believe it, trusting God when we feel alone, inviting Him into our experience.
Importantly, some of our spiritual lulls are made deeper by the derision of others – those who believe in the world much more than they believe in any sort of deity. We live in an individualistic society full of self-help books and New Age gurus that offer you freedom and joy if you just “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and try harder. Or, they will ask you to put your trust in crystals, or fortune-telling, or any one of one hundred other empty activities to ease your pain.
Christianity, they will tell you, is an old-fashioned, contradictory faith that doesn’t come close to delivering what it promises. And, they may warn, if you are turning to God for help, you are a fool. The idea of God challenges the world they can create on their own that asks so little from them — but returns so little, too.
If you are turning to God, you are turning to the only true solace in this world. John 15:18-19 reminds, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
How to Pray When You Are Low on Faith
Is your rut so deep that you cannot form a prayer? Does the idea of prayer feel too burdensome in your current situation? Tell that to God. “God, I do not even have words for a prayer, but I am reaching out to You, the One who knows me completely, and knows my heart. Please enter into this situation and heal my struggle.” Reading your favorite Bible verses may help, too, or reading a book with uplifting scriptural themes may be part of your answer, guiding you back to the Bible. I have a friend who was in a deep spiritual rut who slept with her Bible wrapped in her arms every night. She said, “I literally cling to God’s Word when I sleep. Some days I feel too overwhelmed to even open my Bible, but at night it is my security, my hope, my promise.”
So, take your faith lull directly to the source of all healing and joy. Honestly layout the bleakness you feel and ask Him for relief and guidance. He will never let you down, and your rut will soon be filled with renewed faith and spiritual abundance. God wants us to be real with Him, going to Him in each and every situation, no matter how dark. He can then get to work, creating restoration and abundance in your life, a life that is so precious to Him!
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Deirdre Reilly is a writer and editor, and her commentary has appeared on various websites including CBN.com, FoxNews.com, and others. Her new book, “The Pretend Christian: Traveling Beyond Denomination to the True Jesus,” details her own personal journey through doubt and fear into true belief. You can connect with Deirdre via www.deirdrereilly.com, or follow her on Twitter at @deirdrewrites.