Religious people might go through spiritual dry spells that range from spiritual unease to spiritual crises. The writers looked into the root reasons of spiritual dryness in religious brothers and sisters who had lived in monastic settings for decades. They conducted qualitative interviews with 16 brothers and 14 sisters, inquiring about the triggers of spiritual dryness stages. The identified categories were inductively structured and condensed into five main topics based on the content analysis of the 30 narratives: (1) Loss of Relationship with God, (2) Loss of Orientation, (3) Loss of Depth, (4) Difficulties with the Religious Community, and (5) Intrinsic Factors: Overload, Uncertainty, Depression. Extrinsic (God not responding, others causing obstacles) and intrinsic (loss of orientation and depth, doubt, and depressive state) factors can be separated from these five primary subjects. To assist and support persons during these periods, a comprehensive understanding of the underlying'spirits' (triggers) is required. It appears that no single (theological) interpretation of the causes is valid, but that different interpretations may be true for the many different people who are going through these periods of darkness, dryness, despair, or loss of faith.
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Reasons for Spiritual Dryness
There are a variety of reasons why spiritual dryness develops in us, including the following:
- Tragedy and adversity can sap your hope and put your faith to the test, leaving you vulnerable.
- It's possible that your attention has changed from relationships to law. In other words, your performance takes precedence over your relationship with God.
- You are not maintaining your relationship with God. Perhaps your life has become so busy that you have forgotten the value of spending time with God.
- You are believing a falsehood and are in desperate need of God's truth to set you free. Your perception of yourself and God is tainted by deception.
Overcoming Spiritual Dryness
So, how can we get through spiritual dry spells in the wilderness? We need to reset our thoughts and reconnect with our first love. An intimate relationship with God provides spiritual nutrition. We will discover biblical principles to rejuvenate the mind and spiritual methods to re-establish intimacy with God in the next three articles.
God is a Good and Loving Father
Life's challenges can wear us down and erode our faith, leaving us vulnerable to accepting lies about God's genuine character. I believe we are always in need of a greater understanding of God as a good and loving Father. If we don't believe God is good and loving, but rather regard Him as a vengeful, temperamental, unloving, and inconsistent Father, God will appear unapproachable and untrustworthy. Spiritual dryness is fueled by the illusions we think about who God is, which generate distance and distrust. How do we know what kind of Father we have? Abba Father adores you and is relentless in his pursuit of you. He hears and responds to your cries. He stands up for you. Father God blesses His children with wonderful gifts. He is the source of all good and flawless gifts. He has more positive ideas about you than sand grains. Abba delights in you and sings joyful songs over you. He will never desert you since he is constantly with you. He does not withhold anything good from you because He is a generous Father who gave us His own Son. Because Jesus came to symbolize the Father, you can see the Father's kindness in Jesus. Accepting these principles will serve as your compass in the wilderness. Even if you don't believe these declarations are genuine, it's vital to think about them and say them to yourself until they become reality. Because God's word is supernatural, the Holy Spirit will reveal these truths to you when you read His promises.
You are a Son or Daughter of God
We can be perplexed about our identity, especially during wilderness seasons. Perhaps you've lost your job and are now feeling aimless. Maybe you've been in a relationship that ended in a breakup and you're feeling rejected. Whatever the difficulty, spiritual dryness sets in when you look at yourself without seeing yourself through God's eyes. Because of their unworthiness and shame, people may assume a false identity. Your sentiments, performance, failures, circumstances, pain, sins, people's judgments of you, and so on can all be used to define a false identity. Every aspect of your life is influenced by your identity, including how you see yourself, your relationships, and your purpose.
Humanity has pondered this topic for millennia “Who am I?” has been a question since the beginning of time. Only the Creator, however, is aware of your true identity. Receiving a new insight of your identity in Christ liberates you to be the true authentic self that God created you to be. You are first and foremost His kid. What exactly does that imply? You are a valuable and one-of-a-kind individual. You are loved, admired, pursued, known, favored, chosen, delighted in, gifted, strong, prized, powerful, free, and forgiven. We no longer struggle to earn God's acceptance and affection when we embrace Sonship because we know we already have it. Because He loves you so much, you are enough and worthy. You may find it difficult to see yourself through God's eyes, but you can choose to trust His words over your own negative picture. Allow God to define you, and your spiritual life will be re-energized. Start by telling yourself, “I'm going to choose to believe and live what you say.
Christian Counseling to Overcome Spiritual Dryness
Are you putting restrictions on God? Are you underestimating your own abilities? It is sometimes the wilderness seasons of life that cause us to look within and seek Him. God is using this season to reveal the truth about who He is and who you are. He does this because your ability to connect with God is determined by how you see Him and yourself. A healthy connection involves a comprehensive understanding of both yourself and the other person. How can you have a solid link with your spouse, for example, if you don't know who you are and are unsure who they are? Accepting your identity in Christ and knowing God as a good and loving Father are essential facts. They are available to you to discover at any time during your life. God's majesty has no bounds. So plunge in and keep learning about how great, long, deep, and high His love for you is. He wants to continue to disclose to you more about your identity, destiny, gifts, and abilities. As a Christian counselor, I believe that therapy may provide a secure environment for you to express your spiritual difficulties. I'd be delighted to assist you as we search for lamps of hope in the wilderness to aid in illuminating your journey. Please contact us if you want to learn more about Christian therapy.
What is spiritual neglect?
Spiritual abuse and neglect of children and adolescents are events or settings that have a negative impact on the development of meaning, purpose, connection/belonging, faith, or moral and ethical principles. This national study adds to our understanding of spiritual abuse and neglect of children and adolescents by assessing the frequency with which social workers experienced ten different types of maltreatment. According to the findings, this type of mistreatment may occur frequently enough to be considered a problem that needs to be investigated and handled. The implications for practitioners, program makers, and child advocates are examined, as well as the need for more research.
How can I revive my spiritual life?
What does it mean to resurrect? Simply expressed, it means “to restore the functionality or validity of anything.” So, what about your spirit has become inactive or has lost its validity? Here's a simple test to see if you're ready: Do you find yourself ruminating on minor irritations in your daily life? Do you have a hard time recalling the last time you felt truly happy?
It's possible that your inner spirit requires a “waking,” and spring is an excellent time to assess your situation and take steps toward a more positive, anxiety-free outlook!
Here are three suggestions to help you rekindle your spirit, as well as “5 Inspiring Quotes” from our Cancer Fighters members to get you started.
1. Work on your core
Our entire being is conditioned to perform better emotionally, mentally, and physically when we focus on growing our spirit, the core of who we are. Some exercises to build your spiritual core may include the following, depending on your personal interests:
Any action that brings you closer to rather than further away from your thoughts and feelings might help you live more cheerfully in the present moment. These activities are referred to as “mindfulness” by some specialists. Mindfulness has been shown to increase overall mood, boost emotional, physical, and social well-being, and reduce anxiety, despair, and rage, according to several studies published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Percy McCray, Jr., Director of Faith-Based Programs at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), warns what can happen if we don't take the time to build our spiritual health in his blog, Revive Yourself, Your Spirit, and Your Health.
“It's critical to take a breath and reflect. If we don't, we'll waste our time shopping, eating, drinking, and socializing in vain attempts to resurrect our spirits.” “Instead of re-energizing us, these pleasures might leave us feeling languid and aimless,” explains Rev. Percy. Every human, however, has a thirst, hunger, and yearning for true meaning, value, and purpose in life.
2. Re-establish (or re-establish) healthy relationships
Living with cancer provides many people a new perspective, one that prioritizes relationships over all else. Given the stress of a cancer diagnosis and treatment, it's not unexpected that problems in relationships, particularly between couples, occur frequently. “Fight the cancer, not each other,” says Michael Uhl, MA, MDiv, LMFT, a Mind-Body Therapist at CTCA in Zion, Illinois. He suggests the following ideas for constructing a house:
- Maintain open channels of communication and draw on previous expertise. Whenever a crisis occurs, make an effort to improve communication. Mutual understanding, not necessarily agreement, should be the goal. It may be painful to discuss feelings, yet it is unshared feelings that cause relationships to suffer.
- Make sure you have a strong support system in place. Bringing friends and other family members on board might provide a much-needed reprieve from caregiving obligations, even if your partner is ready to do it all. Both patients and caregivers require “down time” to manage the plethora of experiences and emotions that accompany cancer treatment, recovery, and survivorship.
- Speak with a therapist who has experience with cancer. Speaking with an unbiased therapist who has worked with other cancer patients can assist couples in expressing their emotions and confirming that the sentiments they are experiencing are normal. Discussing all of the emotionsfear, anger, and griefeither together or separately brings them to the surface and aids in the development of useful coping mechanisms.
Relationships with people you care about a spouse, family, or close friends and doing things you both enjoy are stimulating. They have a regenerating and restoring effect.
3. Control Your Thoughts
What do you think about when you're not working? It's only normal for people to inquire “When confronted with a catastrophic sickness, one would wonder, “Why me?” Focusing on this question, on the other hand, can leave you feeling stuck and frustrated. Focusing your thoughts on things that give you hope, on the other hand, might make you feel empowered and revitalize your spirit.
We invited members of our Cancer Fighters group, many of whom are cancer survivors, to provide encouraging remarks “It lifts their spirits.” The following are five of them “To motivate you, here are some “Inspiring Quotes”:
“According to Ardua.”
This Latin phrase translates to “The McIntyre family motto is “despite trials.” Richard A. McIntyre, Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, shared this.
“God is in control of the cancer; the cancer is not in control of me!” Viola Jones of Olathe, Kansas, shared this.
David Brown and Kathy Mosley, a patient and caregiver from Fairbanks, Alaska, believe one of Baha'u'llah's Baha'i prayers in the Baha'i Prayer book brings them much comfort and peace:
“O my God, memory of Thee is my remedy, and Thy name is my mending.
My aim is to be near Thee, and my companion is love for Thee.
Thy mercy to me is my salvation and healing in both this world and the next.
“Truly, you are the All-Abundant, the All-Knowing, and the All-Wise.”
Kimalea Conrad, a cancer survivor from Telluride, Colorado, says Bible verses inspire her; one of her favorites is the one below. “To me, this verse signifies that cancer has no ability to make me terrified unless I allow it,” Conrad explains.
“God did not give us a fearful spirit, but a spirit of strength, love, and self-control.” Revelation 2:7
Surviving cancer typically demands a heroic amount of physical, mental, and spiritual courage, as any survivor or caregiver knows. “Rev. Percy believes that connecting to a greater source of power can bring that balance, stability, and grounding. “Many of us overlook the most obvious sources of meaning, worth, and purpose: service, forgiveness, hope, peace, and faith. Connecting to these global forces of empowerment is, in many ways, the simplest method to rekindle our spirit.”
How do I renew myself spiritually?
Humans have yearned to understand their actual essence for millennia. Your spirituality is your connection to your actual self and the Universal God-consciousness that binds all beings. Spirituality is a lifetime effort, and depending on where you are in life, it may be time to take a step back and rediscover how to reconnect with God and achieve a refreshed spirit. Even long-standing spiritual practices might get tiresome, since it's typical to reach a point where you're looking for something new.
It's crucial that your spiritual life feels exciting, challenging, and helpful to the person you are today, much as continuing the same workouts at the gym day after day will ultimately reach its limit of efficacy. After you've spiritually rejuvenated yourself, it can seem like you've taken a deep breath of fresh air after living in a windowless chamber.
What is spiritual dryness in the Bible?
It's a type of spiritual crisis that manifests itself subjectively as a sense of being cut off from God or a lack of spiritual emotion, particularly during contemplative meditation.
What does it mean to be spiritually cold?
We've grown accustomed to live in a world where only what can be seen and touched is real. Making it simple to trust what our eyes can see and our hands can feel. Mindfulness and compassion practice can assist us in choosing to view the outside world from a perspective that is beneficial to our spiritual well-being.
Our soul, like our bodies, gets tired and run down and requires rest from time to time. When we stray from a consistent diet of love and gratitude, our spirit, like our bodies, begins to lack the appropriate nutrients that allow energy to flow. Our ability to choose love in difficult situations necessitates a healthy relationship to our soul, just as walking up a flight of stairs necessitates a certain level of fitness.
As someone who has suffered from depression for many years, I've learned that compassion can be the difference between feeling broken and having a spiritual cold. The spiritual symptoms of a fever may manifest as anxiety over paying your bills, rather than the physical symptoms of a fever keeping you awake all night. The physical aches and pains that make a cold so unpleasant are now manifested as feelings of being unloved and inadequate. Nagging, self-deprecating thoughts accompany headaches. It's time to take a break if serving others no longer brings you joy and you're starting to feel like you're doing thankless work. That's the tickling in your throat telling you to be kind with yourself and get some rest, because a negative attitude is just as contagious as a cold.
When our souls are in good shape, we are glad for our friends, social media is enjoyable, we can let go of what no longer serves us, and we can envision our future through a beautiful, optimistic lens. If we ignore our bodies' symptoms of exhaustion and don't relax, our bodies will eventually take control and shut everything down, whether we have the time for a break or not. It is not in our nature to be harsh or callous, just as it is not in our nature to be sick and frail.
As I mentioned in my previous article, just because something doesn't have a name doesn't make it any less real. Love, gratitude, and compassion must be considered as soul medicine. Because you can't package it or buy it over the counter anymore, pharmaceutical corporations aren't interested in disclosing this information to you. Love, on the other hand, can heal; gratitude may relieve worry; and compassion is nature's valium. If you take it every day, morning and night, I assure you'll see a return of your natural delight.
I'm writing this in the hopes that anyone going through a difficult period might change their mindset from fear to love.
As always, please let me know what you think in the comments section.
What does God say about emptiness?
Symptoms of empty spirits include empty bellies, empty lifestyles, empty dreams, and empty motivation. While emptiness seems dreadful, if it is responded to right emptiness can also become a blessing. Even though everything around us stays in empty, emptiness is a wake-up call to go to God, who is the only One who can change emptiness into fullness and fill us with His fullness and blessing.
Why is apathy a sin?
Apathy has long been denounced by Christians as a lack of love and devotion to God and his efforts. This version of indifference is known as Sloth, and it is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The phrase was coined by Clemens Alexandrinus to refer to Christian thinkers who aspired to virtue.
After World War I, when it was one of the several manifestations of “shell shock,” the current idea of apathy became more well-known. When soldiers returned from combat, many developed a sense of detached numbness and apathy to normal social interaction after living in trenches under bombing and machine gun fire, and seeing battlefields strewn with dead and crippled companions.
John Dos Passos, a novelist from the United States, stated in 1950: “Apathy is one of the typical responses of any living creature when confronted with sensations that are too intense or complex to cope with. Comprehension is the antidote to apathy.”