When A Christian Feels Dry: A Simple Practice
If you know life in Christ, you know languishing in Christ. We all go through dry seasons. The Christian life is never lived from mountain top to mountain top. Every saint has known lackluster days in relationship with the Lord. God doesn’t feel close. You have His peace, but are not peaceful. You know His love, but are not enjoying His love. Your spiritual life isn’t dead, but it is dull. What is the answer? What is a Christian to do? The answer lies at the very heart of our Christian faith. Even as we embarked upon the Christian faith by feeding upon Christ, so we continue in the faith by feeding upon Christ. He is the one thing necessary.
How do you do that? I believe one of the great disciplines of the Christian faith is meditation. I am not speaking of meditation as many speak of it today. It is not the mind-emptying meditation of Eastern religions or the monotonous humming meditation of mysticism. Christian meditation fills the mind, so the soul is moved. And as Christians, we seek to fill our minds with and see our souls move by the person of Christ.
How do we do this? We turn to the Scriptures and prayer. Christian meditation can be practiced with any passage in Scripture, but--for the sake of example--let’s consider Colossians 1:15-20. Begin by reading the passage slowly; but, don’t simply read it. Meditate on it! Pray over it. Seek to suck all the juice of truth from it, so that your heart will be enflamed with faith and love for Christ. Feed upon Him by faith in His Word.
Take one phrase, clause, or idea about Christ from the passage and keep turning it over and over in your thoughts. Like holding up a diamond for examination, try to see every facet of the truth contained in that passage. Like a good piece of chocolate in your mouth, keep mulling it over until you have sucked all its goodness out. Don’t give up. Keep thinking upon it until you find your mind occupied, your affections stirred, and your soul ignited with passion for Christ. It takes time, concentration, practice, and prayer, but the fruits are abundant.
For example, take the sixteenth verse, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether throne or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” He created all visible things. He created the 100 billion visible galaxies including our own Milky Way. A galaxy that alone contains 300 billion stars. He created the blade of grass you stepped on this morning and the ant that ran past your feet. He created the butterfly and the gorilla, every cloud in the sky and every particle of soil, the newborn baby and the grave. Think about all the diversity in the visible order. What diversity exists—so many colors, shapes, sizes, and purposes. Oh, for one to create this much diversity, His creativity must be exceedingly great! He created the brilliance of the rainbow in full color, the glory of the red rose, the stunning awe of the mountaintops. What beauty! If these reflect such beauty, how beautiful must He be? He created the raging sea in all its grandeur, the Lion it all its strength, the tornado with all its force. How great must His power be? And all of this is just the visible order. He also created all things invisible. Surely, more things exist in the invisible order than the visible order! He created all of them—from the legions of angels to the countless number of atoms, every soul, every demon, every spiritual reality. What a Creator! How great is He?
This exercise is endless. Truly, we could go on and on, but if my experience is anything like yours—I would guess that your heart is starting to stir. How good it is to think upon Christ. Oh, how the soul that feeds upon Christ knows the richest delights in heaven and earth. Run to Him, dear Christian. Eat your fill of Christ and keep seeking to be more and more filled. Let it be your daily practice, your continual pursuit, and your everlasting joy.
