In The Midst Of A Dry Season
Psalm 63
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah
1: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2: I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3: Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4: I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5: My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6: On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
7: Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8: My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
In The Midst Of A Dry Season
No matter where you are or what you do, there is one thing that every believer will encounter during their relationship with God, and that is experiencing the changing of seasons. Just as Winter turns into Spring, Spring becomes Summer, Summer goes into Autumn, and Autumn transitions into winter; we as Christians will find ourselves in flux between a season of overflow where we are experiencing abundance beyond our wildest dreams, but on the flipside we will sometimes find ourselves in the midst of a dry season. A dry season is just that, straight dry; there is no latter rain falling in our lives our worship and prayers have hit a glass ceiling and God seems to be nowhere to be found.
There are many examples of a dry season in the Scripture, and in the lives of others; one such example falls in the 63rd division of Psalms. In this passage, David is out on the lamb like a criminal running from the PO-PO; he’s out there because he’s trying to get away from a bunch of mess. He’s got Saul after him like he owes him a 20. He’s got a whole crew of haters because of he let his son Absalom run things in his kingdom and his son ruined his name with all of his foolishness so he had to run for his life to Edom. So on the way there, he finds himself in Judah and all this running reminds me of my adventures in Atlanta when I wanted to pretend I was smarter than the GPS and ended up in no man’s land a.k.a. the shady part of the city. David’s adventure took him to a place that was in a dry, much like the areas of Vegas where nothing is growing not even some weeds because there is no water, not even enough for a roach to get a drink let alone a grown man.
While in the wilderness, he started to grow thirsty in two ways. First of all in the physical sense his body was becoming dehydrated and secondly, in the spiritual sense his soul had grown thirsty. David was a man who desired to be within his God’s heart just like you and I; all we want to do is get some love and affection from him. The worst part is that we can end up in a desert on accident because we’ve neglected our relationship or duties, or we got off the narrow path like David did. Or we can end up in on purpose and catch a case of the “itus” that Job faced because God is trying to tell us something by testing us. Psalms 43:2 “ For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
We have to ask God, just why are you hating on me? Why can’t I have my new car, where’s my house like the one Sis Jones’ just got, where’s my degree, God where’s my husband or better yet in the words of my wonderful co-pastor, “Where’s my stuff at?” When you don’t have what you feel that you deserve from God or that you are getting his best what other folk’s have becomes much more noticeable to you because you ain’t got anything and that opens the door to temptation? When you are in the midst of a dry season, you feel unsure about the status of where you are in his heart, it’s like when you fall in love with someone and you write that little note with “do you like me” and the two check boxes yes/no; and when you get it back its blank, or they’ve gone ahead and wrote maybe. That’s how it feels to be unsure about someone’s love and it is no joke, your soul is hurt, your mind is confused and you feel as if there is no favor falling upon you because God didn’t answer. But that’s how a dry season goes sometimes, they creep up on us, it starts off a day or two where we don’t have any rain and next thing you look up and it’s been months which turn into days when turn into years and sometimes we end up with decades of a dry season where there’s no rain and what was once a lush fruitful oasis is now a dry patch of land with trash, tumbleweeds, and tires. When we are in a state of being dry like old bones, we start to get like David in Judah and just long for is some rain. You ask can I get a sprinkle or something Lord, I’m all out here, it’s hot, its dry, and I’m tired sweaty and funky. What’s really going on out here? For David asked the Lord in Psalms 51:12 to “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” as a way to cope with his experience.
To all spiritual lives there come seasons of dryness, when we find our self in a dry season, it’s at time where we become very vulnerable to temptation, discouragement, grief, and just become plain tired and worn out. Dry seasons are no joke because we are seriously tested as to what our limits and endurances are within our relationship with God but the silver lining is that we learn to trust in him as to what he can do for us.
AW Tozer writes about this experience in “The Ministry of the Night”
When you are out there in the desert and it’s dry, we need to be like David. First of all we need to keep praying even when we hit that glass ceiling. Because if you keep on hitting it, eventually the time will come when the glass has gotta break and then once it shatters; all that other mess won’t even matter. Secondly, you have to keep yourself in relationship, read your bible and study your word because Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Realize that dry seasons are not punishment but rather they are the blessing in the storm, it’s a chance to make a shift in our faith, a chance to take a risk and do something new in him because you don’t have a thing to lose. There’s a saying that if you can make it in New York, you can live any where else. So if you can make it through a dry season, you can make it any where in God’s kingdom . As long as you can hang with him, and if you have faith the size of a seed in all that he can do, and all that he can provide; a dry season won’t have to break you it’ll make you instead. A dry season won’t be a burden but a blessing. David was out there in a dry season in Judah, but he had enough sense to realize that he was going to keep praising him, and keep seeking him until he got out of it. Can you be a bold as David? Can you trust God enough to carry an umbrella even though there’s not a cloud in the sky? Can you ask him to help you to hold out though the dry season, until you get that latter rain. Can you see the silver lining in the clouds? Can you understand that seasons change, just as you fell into this dry season, you can fall out of it. Dry seasons are for a reason, its to challenge us, to let us know that he can handle this in the midst of a famine, that he can be your Jehovah Jirah and provide, your Jehovah Rohpe and heal, your Jehovah Nissi to be the banner that protects, Jehovah Rohi as your shepherd so you shall not want, your Jehovah Shalom so that you can endure with peace. And most of all even in a dry season he can be your Jehovah Shammah and show out in a full manifestation of his glory. If your in a dry season, stop letting your self be lead by fear, and go forth in faith, step up your game and watch him make it rain on you to the point where you’ll have to get your umbrella and your rain coat, and put on your galoshes cause your dry season has shifted to one of overflow.
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah
1: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2: I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3: Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4: I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5: My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6: On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
7: Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8: My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
In The Midst Of A Dry Season
No matter where you are or what you do, there is one thing that every believer will encounter during their relationship with God, and that is experiencing the changing of seasons. Just as Winter turns into Spring, Spring becomes Summer, Summer goes into Autumn, and Autumn transitions into winter; we as Christians will find ourselves in flux between a season of overflow where we are experiencing abundance beyond our wildest dreams, but on the flipside we will sometimes find ourselves in the midst of a dry season. A dry season is just that, straight dry; there is no latter rain falling in our lives our worship and prayers have hit a glass ceiling and God seems to be nowhere to be found.
There are many examples of a dry season in the Scripture, and in the lives of others; one such example falls in the 63rd division of Psalms. In this passage, David is out on the lamb like a criminal running from the PO-PO; he’s out there because he’s trying to get away from a bunch of mess. He’s got Saul after him like he owes him a 20. He’s got a whole crew of haters because of he let his son Absalom run things in his kingdom and his son ruined his name with all of his foolishness so he had to run for his life to Edom. So on the way there, he finds himself in Judah and all this running reminds me of my adventures in Atlanta when I wanted to pretend I was smarter than the GPS and ended up in no man’s land a.k.a. the shady part of the city. David’s adventure took him to a place that was in a dry, much like the areas of Vegas where nothing is growing not even some weeds because there is no water, not even enough for a roach to get a drink let alone a grown man.
While in the wilderness, he started to grow thirsty in two ways. First of all in the physical sense his body was becoming dehydrated and secondly, in the spiritual sense his soul had grown thirsty. David was a man who desired to be within his God’s heart just like you and I; all we want to do is get some love and affection from him. The worst part is that we can end up in a desert on accident because we’ve neglected our relationship or duties, or we got off the narrow path like David did. Or we can end up in on purpose and catch a case of the “itus” that Job faced because God is trying to tell us something by testing us. Psalms 43:2 “ For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
We have to ask God, just why are you hating on me? Why can’t I have my new car, where’s my house like the one Sis Jones’ just got, where’s my degree, God where’s my husband or better yet in the words of my wonderful co-pastor, “Where’s my stuff at?” When you don’t have what you feel that you deserve from God or that you are getting his best what other folk’s have becomes much more noticeable to you because you ain’t got anything and that opens the door to temptation? When you are in the midst of a dry season, you feel unsure about the status of where you are in his heart, it’s like when you fall in love with someone and you write that little note with “do you like me” and the two check boxes yes/no; and when you get it back its blank, or they’ve gone ahead and wrote maybe. That’s how it feels to be unsure about someone’s love and it is no joke, your soul is hurt, your mind is confused and you feel as if there is no favor falling upon you because God didn’t answer. But that’s how a dry season goes sometimes, they creep up on us, it starts off a day or two where we don’t have any rain and next thing you look up and it’s been months which turn into days when turn into years and sometimes we end up with decades of a dry season where there’s no rain and what was once a lush fruitful oasis is now a dry patch of land with trash, tumbleweeds, and tires. When we are in a state of being dry like old bones, we start to get like David in Judah and just long for is some rain. You ask can I get a sprinkle or something Lord, I’m all out here, it’s hot, its dry, and I’m tired sweaty and funky. What’s really going on out here? For David asked the Lord in Psalms 51:12 to “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” as a way to cope with his experience.
To all spiritual lives there come seasons of dryness, when we find our self in a dry season, it’s at time where we become very vulnerable to temptation, discouragement, grief, and just become plain tired and worn out. Dry seasons are no joke because we are seriously tested as to what our limits and endurances are within our relationship with God but the silver lining is that we learn to trust in him as to what he can do for us.
AW Tozer writes about this experience in “The Ministry of the Night”
Now under the careful treatment of the Holy Spirit your life may become dry, tasteless and to some degree a burden to you. While in this state, you will find none of the inward sweetness you had enjoyed before. But there is a limit to man's ability to live without joy. Even Christ could endure the cross only because of the joy in September before Him. The strongest steel breaks if kept too long under unrelieved tension. God knows exactly how much pressure each one of us can take. He knows how long we can endure the night, so he gives the soul relief, first by welcome glimpses of the morning star and then by the light that brings the morning. Then you will learn what true faith is, that it lies in his will, and may come and go. How long you continue in this night of the soul will depend upon a number of factors, some of which you may be able later to identify; while others will remain with God, completely hidden from you. The words "Theday is thine, the night also is thine" will now be interpreted for you by the best of all teachers, the Holy Spirit; and you will know by personal experience what a blessed thingis the ministry of the night.
When you are out there in the desert and it’s dry, we need to be like David. First of all we need to keep praying even when we hit that glass ceiling. Because if you keep on hitting it, eventually the time will come when the glass has gotta break and then once it shatters; all that other mess won’t even matter. Secondly, you have to keep yourself in relationship, read your bible and study your word because Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Realize that dry seasons are not punishment but rather they are the blessing in the storm, it’s a chance to make a shift in our faith, a chance to take a risk and do something new in him because you don’t have a thing to lose. There’s a saying that if you can make it in New York, you can live any where else. So if you can make it through a dry season, you can make it any where in God’s kingdom . As long as you can hang with him, and if you have faith the size of a seed in all that he can do, and all that he can provide; a dry season won’t have to break you it’ll make you instead. A dry season won’t be a burden but a blessing. David was out there in a dry season in Judah, but he had enough sense to realize that he was going to keep praising him, and keep seeking him until he got out of it. Can you be a bold as David? Can you trust God enough to carry an umbrella even though there’s not a cloud in the sky? Can you ask him to help you to hold out though the dry season, until you get that latter rain. Can you see the silver lining in the clouds? Can you understand that seasons change, just as you fell into this dry season, you can fall out of it. Dry seasons are for a reason, its to challenge us, to let us know that he can handle this in the midst of a famine, that he can be your Jehovah Jirah and provide, your Jehovah Rohpe and heal, your Jehovah Nissi to be the banner that protects, Jehovah Rohi as your shepherd so you shall not want, your Jehovah Shalom so that you can endure with peace. And most of all even in a dry season he can be your Jehovah Shammah and show out in a full manifestation of his glory. If your in a dry season, stop letting your self be lead by fear, and go forth in faith, step up your game and watch him make it rain on you to the point where you’ll have to get your umbrella and your rain coat, and put on your galoshes cause your dry season has shifted to one of overflow.
|
0 comments:
Post a Comment