Dry and Downcast

Sometimes you go through seasons where you don't hear from God like you use too. The Holy Spirit is within you and because of Him you know what is right and what is wrong. But you miss His still small voice that washes over you and floods you with peace and assurance that you are His and He is pleased with you. It seems that without those moments of intimacy with God, the world gets cloudy and your thoughts turn to what is negative and the life-giving energy within you springs a leak.

That is where I am this week. I go through times like this more than I care to admit. It isn't depression or even discouragement, but instead, a deep thirst for intimacy with the Lover of my Soul. 

David explains this in the Psalms

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1 NIV)

It can become so dry in your soul as you wait for God to quench your thirst that it can be easy to become downcast, like what David describes in Psalm 42

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5, 9, 11 NIV)

What can I rejoice in? I can rejoice in knowing that the need of my heart is not for the gift, but the Giver.  I can rejoice in knowing that His promises are sure, that if I seek Him, I will find Him, when I seek Him with all my heart (Jeremiah 29:13).  There is only one response I can give, regardless of the season I am in and that is to rejoice in The Lord always (Philippians 4:4). I know He hears me and will answer me from His holy mountain. He has not forgotten me, He loves me. I am His and He is mine. He is my hope and I will praise Him.