FOUR WAYS TO SURVIVE A SPIRITUAL DRY TIME
“Jesus has a very special love for you, But as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear…” (Ghandi or Mother Teresa?)
“For more than a week, Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy against God.” (Martin Luther or Rowan Williams?)
“Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable” (Billy Graham or CS Lewis?)
We all have times when we doubt, when prayer is hard, when God seems distant, when we’re desperate for a new experience of God.
Quick Recap on last term:
Genesis 1-2
Genesis 3
Genesis 4
Genesis 6-9 (Noah)
Who is missing from Gen.10-11?
1) IGNORE YOUR FEELINGS, RELY ON FACTS
Noah’s descendants have…
i) swapped their gods.
” Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Gen.11:4)
ii) abandoned facts in favour of feelings.
a) The story of your conversion
b) the broader historical evidence.
2) KEEP WORKING FOR GOD’S GLORY
“But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.””
3) DEAL WITH SIN
4) PRACTICING FAITH IN DARKNESS MAKES YOU STRONGER
“When God was silent in my life, my faith developed bones and muscles and gained a kind of strength that I couldn’t have gained if I were smothered by His attention and love.”
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I want to know more:
- To Read: The Message of Genesis, Atkinson, Bible Speaks Today commentary
- To Read: Reaching for the Invisible God, Philip Yancey
- Lego Bible at: http://www.thebrickbible.com/menu.html (warning, not really child-suitable!)