The Dry Places

I don’t know about you, but there are times in my life where I find myself experiencing what I call a “dry place”. These dry places for me are times in my life where I feel down, battered and bruised. I feel tired and far from God. To be honest, I actually just feel done. These dry places are not very common but they are definitely not uncommon.

Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you make a bad decision or sometimes you just feel like a bad person.

“Oh great, I messed up again…”

Generally speaking, when I have a bad day like this, its caused from a bad moment that I have carried into every situation of my life and have allowed it to effect every person I come into contact with. The last thing I feel is love and forgiveness – instead I sit around and mope feeling absolutely deflated.

This my friends, is the devil’s tactic. The reality of the situation is that condemnation pleases him as well as imposing guilt and shame. When we do something wrong (which is unfortunately more likely than not due to our human nature which we have to constantly work on) – we need to run to God and not away from Him! The Bible says that we need to repent and change, that our sins may be blotted out and we can experience times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord. (Acts 3:19)

God showed me recently that the reasons for the dry places I have been finding myself in lately, are actually very obvious: there is a lack of reading the Word and there is a lack of Prayer.

1. Reading the Word

The Word of God is our DAILY bread – we need to be partaking in its nutrients every single day in order to be spiritually fed. Like a rumbling tummy is a sign to people around you that you are hungry – the rumbling of our spiritual tummy can be heard by others in the forms of a nasty attitude, an uncontrolled tongue and a flaring temper.

2. Prayer

So important! Prayer is a two-way communication with God. When we stop praying, He doesn’t hear from us and we don’t stop to hear from Him. When I am in a dry place, sometimes I don’t want to speak to God – I feel like I don’t know what to say – but actually, its not about the words…it’s about the desperate heart behind the words. He sees, He hears and He loves regardless of circumstances.

How can I possibly feel refreshed, strong or like a victor if I am not mediating daily on what the Book of LIFE says about me? 

The dry places are a place of choice. I can allow them become a norm in my life and partake in their misery, or I can run full throttle into the arms of Lover of my soul, the Lifter of my head and Carrier of my burdens. The choice comes in our daily walk with God – am I getting into His Word daily? Am I speaking with Him daily? Am I letting Him speak? Am I being washed by the Word and refreshed by the presence of God in my everyday life?

I guarantee if I was doing this on a consistent basis everyday, I could prevent a dry moment from making a dry day a dry place.

“We are pressured in every way [hedged in], but not crushed; perplexed [unsure of finding a way out], but not driven to despair; hunted down and persecuted, but not deserted [to stand alone]; struck down, but never destroyed“

(2 Corinthians 4:8-9 AMP)

The art of Gentleness

I have the awesome privilege of serving in our older kids church – “One Way” (11yrs – 14yrs) on Sundays at church. I absolutely love it. It is one of my favorite things. Ever.

Our theme for One Way this term has been the Fruits of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22-23]. Every week, we have been covering a different fruit. All was well until I realized I was up last week to teach on the fruit of Gentleness.
Gentleness – the one fruit I have never thought applies to me. I AM NOT GENTLE! In fact, a scripture that has always boggled my mind is:

1 Peter 3:3-4 (NKJV)
“Do not let your adornment be merely outward – arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel – rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so very precious in sight of God.”

For years I struggled with this scripture! I was all about not letting everything about me be about outward adorning – great, got it, check. But to have an incorruptible beauty in the sight of the Lord due to gentleness?? Listen, I am not timid and I certainly am not quiet.

Here’s the thing though, my view on what it meant to qualify as “gentle” was impossible. Not because gentleness is impossible, but because my perception and my understanding of the word was incorrect, misunderstood and quite frankly contrary to the Bible.

So this is where it gets good! Being the awesome Bible student / Word lover that I am (and I mean this in all humility 😉 ) – I grabbed my Bible, my notebook and the internet (by internet I mean online concordance, dictionary and YouTube sermons) and I started to research the fruit of Gentleness.

And guess what?? Gentleness is not being timid, weak and frail like I thought. No, it is the complete contrary!

My favorite definition of gentleness I found was:

“Power or strength under control“

Woah – lets just stop for a minute, do a praise break that you are not failing at your walk with Jesus if you too, like me, struggled with the concept that gentleness means being quiet and timid – which you are not, you have a mouth and you know how to use it, like me – and now – lets continue reading 🙂

Gentleness means to be:

• kind,
• considerate,
• not harsh or severe and
• easily managed or handled. (This is actually referring to the handling of a horse. Think about it – you get a wild horse and you get a tame horse. Both horses have the exact same power and strength, the tame horse just has it under control.)

Gentleness is also known in the Bible as “Meekness” – here’s the catch phrase: “Meekness is not Weakness!“

Let me bring this home … For us as women to be gentle does not mean we are weak. It means the opposite: it means that we are strong and powerful but we have this strength and power under control. We do not recklessly run our mouths or flap our tongues.
Mean women are weak.
Angry women are weak.
Gossiping women are weak.

But a woman who takes the power that she has to rip someone/something apart and puts it under the control of the Holy Spirit is GENTLE and STRONG.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:1(NKJV) – “The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands” – we as women can either build our houses with the wisdom of keeping our mouths guarded and words few, or we can foolishly tear them apart and all who are inside by not controlling the power of our words. [Side Note: Lisa Bevere has a wonderful short clip called “A Wise Woman” on YouTube, I encourage you to check it out.]

I praise God for this revelation and understanding of Gentleness. Because it is something that applies to all of us. Our gentleness is our strength and this kind of spirit is beautiful & precious in the sight of the Lord!

You do possess Gentleness. If you have the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, it is a fruit that needs to be cultivated daily. You do not fail. Everything in God’s word that He says you are – you are. Maybe you’re not there yet, but you have the potential to be there.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT)

If I could tell you Anything…

Recently at youth we have been doing a Love, Sex & Dating series – isn’t it so funny how everyone loves this topic and is always ready to hear anything and everything? I think it’s because we are human beings who God has wired for relationships with other people. Anyway, our church is also running a discipleship program, which means that all of us as Bible School Students have people under us who we are walking a road with, ministering to and growing, so that they in turn can begin to disciple. I adore my girls but they are teens so are even more intrigued by the topic of Love, Sex & Dating. I knew there would be questions and comments and I felt completely out of my depth as to where to even begin with them. Sooooo, I did the best thing you can do, and  I spent time talking with the Holy Spirit. I felt so under qualified to even talk about this topic – you know, not being married, there is a TON that I don’t know, don’t understand and still have yet to learn.  But I knew God could use me where I’m at – engaged and walking a road to marriage – so with that intention in my heart, I began asking Him what it is that I could confidently say I have learned…

If I could tell you anything, just one thing that I have learned going from being my own person to being in a relationship with a wonderful man to then getting engaged and preparing for marriage, it is this:

A man (or any other person for that matter) will never complete you.

It seems common sense right? But I don’t think it actually is. When I was 16 I started praying for my future husband – whoever he was and wherever he was, I prayed for him every night. But in that I found I almost longed for him in a way that wasn’t natural – I felt almost as if once I met him, I would be even happier, once I met him, my relationship with God would grow, once I met him – I would be complete. (I actually prayed for him so much that I wondered when I met him what I would even pray for anymore?!)

But boy, was I mislead – no other person can or will ever complete you. Never. Ever.

We are of God – He was there in the forming and the shaping process in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139) before we even took our first breath – and He is still here today. He calls us and gives us our purpose for this life. We are made in His image and His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27) and when we accept Jesus into our hearts, His Spirit comes to dwell in our earthen vessels. The point is, we are made by God and for God – the Bible even says in Colossians that we are “complete in Christ.”

Complete:

• Having all the necessary or appropriate parts
• Having nothing missing and nothing broken
• To make something whole or perfect

So, we as individuals with Jesus in our hearts – have nothing missing and nothing broken. No amount of happiness is missing, no amount of self-worth is missing, no amount of anything we need is missing – remember that,  just because we don’t “feel” something, doesn’t mean it’s not there. 

Our self worth, value and confidence comes from God – who He has made us to be and the endless resources He has given us to be the best us we can be! No person – no living, breathing, walking human being can do this for us. Because the reality check is this – humans fail.

If my wholeness came from Chad – well I would be a broken individual – not because he isn’t wonderful and incredible but because he is a human man, who will disappoint me, who will let me down and who will have flaws. (And vice versa – this goes for me as well).

You may have had a terrible upbringing, filled with much hurt and pain … but a man can never be your rescue. He may temporarily satisfy the longings of your heart but the repair will only ever be a bandage. Only God can replace what the enemy stole and only God can truly heal a broken heart so that there is absolutely nothing missing anymore.

I am a better person when I am filled with more of Jesus and less of myself. His fullness on the inside of me benefits myself as well as all of the relationships in my life. Run to Jesus today – your completeness, your purpose and your belonging is found in Him, and in Him alone.

“The only one that can truly satisfy the human heart, is the One that created it”

– Anonymous