Spiritual Dryness

Spiritual Dryness is the thing that happen inside rather than outside. Inward rather than outward. Of course, the world which present the value of survival of the fittest (Comparison kills!) can dry us so badly can dry us however, the primary problem of this spiritual dryness is about our spiritual lifestyle. But what is spiritual dryness? This is the condition what people say as the dark night of the soul, when we fell distant with God and feel empty inside. The theological cause of this spiritual dryness is ultimately sin. Sin make us living in a state of anti-surrender. We are holding the world to tightly, with our own effort. Our mind constantly thinking about how to gain more, and more and more. Spiritual dryness is a clear sign that we are already tired, and thus, we need to have spiritual rest not spiritual off. That is why, many cases of spiritual dryness can be prevented well if only that we, as Therese of Lisieux wrote, "simply surrender." In her writing, Therese of Lisieux wrote something like this,

"My loving Father, it is only in the deepening silence of this night when I am here alone with you...only you can complete the good work that only you could have begun in me." 

From those who reflect her word of prayer, we find out the idea of deepening silence at night, which she spend a quality time with God and acknowledge that God is the one who work in and through us to accomplished His will and purpose in our lives. Having said that, simply surrender is not easy to be done rather than said. But we can do something about it. Instead of planning lot of things for our achievement and our reputation, it is important to manage the relation between us and God through daily routine and tight spiritual discipline. It is not a mission impossible, since believers have a power from the Holy Spirit to fight againts sin and anti-surrender tendency. 

Essentially, those who are saved in Christ is already secure, however the deepness of our relationship is depend on how much effort we put. So, spiritual dryness is not a sign of losing one salvation. Although spiritual dryness can come normally through lot of difficulties in lives, yet, often time, it is us who create it in the first place since we ignore the very important thing, that is to say to have a silent moment with Him, especially in prayer and meditation.

According to Joel Beeke, a Puritan scholar and Theologian, he says in his writing on The Puritan Pratice of Meditation, "One cannot be a Christian without meditation. in the Puritan view. Without meditation, preaching wont benefit us, our prayers wont be effective, and we will be unable to defend the truth. For them (Puritan), meditation was the duty that gave rise to all other Christian duties and lubricated all the other means of grace." 

Meditation here is not the same as the Eastern Meditation but A Trinitarian Meditation, a deep communion with God in Biblical meditation. Thus, the meditation that is rooted into the Word. We prepare our heart each and every day to listen to God's word that speak to us rather than wanting to find what we want only in the Scripture. And as we read the Word, we are reading it slowly. Enjoy the moment, and do not make it hurry. It is the challenge for us today to read Bible fast like we read the article in the internet. Indeed, we are "addicted to speed" but we all know, many things of haste is not good. When we eat food with a very crazy speed, we lost the enjoyment. 

So it is the same with our Spiritual life. When we begin to read Bible fast, and digest slowly, no wonder we are truly trouble inside and then wondering, "why I still feel dry although I already read the Word everyday?" This is not the problem that comes of the Word but because of our ways of reading, our posture of the heart, that want to quickly done all the process and proceed to do another works. In Christian history, the mediation of the Word was about "Slow reading." Surprisingly, this meditative reading of the Word does not just effects in heart but our physical body as a whole. Dr. Andrew Newberg has conducted the research for thirty years and found out that by doing this discipline, it can permanently strengthen neural functioning in specific parts of the brain and lowering anxiety and depression. That is why in Psalms 119:28 the Psalmist can confidently declare, "my soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word." 

Nevertheless, by doing a right meditation it may not instantly heals our spiritual dryness. That is why we called it as spiritual discipline in the first place. Discipline need to be done continuously by simply surrender to God by communing and meditating to His Word daily, slowly and attentively. But at least, by doing the discipline, we know that we are on the right track and we firmly believe, God can use this means to refresh and nourish us according to His wise and sovereign will. To find another way apart from the Word, is to add more oil to the fire, and create a deeper Spiritual dryness.