When Your Soul Feels Dry

A well-known Christian author sits alone in his house

after the funeral of his wife. The cards have stopped coming,

the visitors have gone home, and the man who once wrote so

beautifully about faith now feels nothing but numbness. C. S.

Lewis tried to pray, but he said it felt like God had slammed the

door in his face and double-bolted it. He still

believed, but his soul felt dry, and his prayers seemed to bounce

off the ceiling. And the God that he'd written about seemed a

million miles away. How does someone that honest about

spiritual emptiness keep seeking God instead of walking away?

Welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger, and

today we're talking about those seasons when your soul feels dry.

You're still going to church, and you're still saying the

right things, maybe even reading your Bible, but inside you feel

distant from God. The feelings you used to have, feelings of

joy and warmth and closeness, those all seem to be gone, and

all you're left with is spiritual sand in your mouth.

When David wrote those words, he wasn't sitting in a quiet chapel

with worship music playing. He was in the wilderness, a dry and

hard place. Everything around him felt empty and exposed, and

that's the language he used for his soul also, parched and weary.

And that might be exactly how your spiritual life feels right

now. There are seasons when faith feels alive and vibrant.

You sense God's nearness, and His Word seems to jump off the

page. And worship moves you so deeply. But there are also those

seasons when you feel like you're just going through the

motions. You bow your head, but the words feel flat. You open

your Bible, but your mind wanders. I know mine does that

quite often. I have to bring it back. And you sing songs, but

when you do, your heart feels like you're just going through

the motions. If that's where you are, I want you to hear this

clearly. Spiritual dryness doesn't mean you're broken

beyond repair, and it doesn't mean that God has abandoned you.

Many of the people we most admire in Scripture walked

through dry seasons themselves. The difference is not that they

always felt close to God. It's that, like David, they kept

saying, Oh God, you are my God. My soul thirsts for you, even

when their emotions didn't match. Notice what David doesn't say.

My soul has it all together. He says, my soul thirsts. Thirst is

not a sign of failure. It's a sign of life, because a dead

heart doesn't thirst for God. A living heart can feel dry and

still say, Lord, I miss you, and I want you. I don't feel you

right now, but I want to feel close to you again. Maybe that's

where you are. You still believe, but you feel numb, and you

remember seasons when you felt closer to God than you do now,

and you're not even sure when the distance started. Work got

busy, maybe grief moved into your life, or your prayers went

unanswered, and then disappointment settled in, and

little by little, your soul dried out. What do you do then?

You do what David did. You start right where you are, and you

tell the truth. Oh God, you are my God. My soul thirsts for you.

I feel like I'm in a parched and weary land, and there's no water.

That's not a fancy prayer, but it is an honest one, and God

meets us in honesty. You also keep showing up, even when it

feels hollow. You keep opening scripture, even if it's just a

few verses, and you keep turning your face toward God, even if

all you can say is, Lord, I don't feel anything right now,

but I'm here. Spiritual dryness often doesn't break with one

emotional moment. It slowly softens as we keep bringing our

emptiness to God instead of running from Him. In the journal

that became A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis didn't pretend. He

poured out raw anger and questions and silence to God

again and again. Over time, the tone of his writings shifted

from sharp pain to a humbler, deeper trust. He never got tidy

answers, but he discovered that even when God felt absent, God

was still holding him. Lewis moved from writing about thirst

to living Psalm 63.1. My soul thirsts for you in this parched

and weary land. This story reminds us that spiritual

dryness isn't the end of the road. It can be the place where

God gently awakens our desire for His presence again. Maybe

God is doing something like that in you. You may not feel a

sudden rush of emotion, but there might be a small stubborn

desire that won't go away, a quiet, God, I miss you. That

desire, as weak as it feels, is actually a gift from Him. He is

the one awakening that in you. Here's today's challenge.

Sometime today, find a quiet moment, maybe in your car or on

a walk or sitting on the edge of your bed and pray Psalm 63.1 out

loud, exactly as you are. You might say, Lord, this is how I

feel. My soul feels dry, but I want to thirst for you again.

Please, meet me in this parched and weary place. And you don't

have to fix your dryness before you come to Him. Come to Him in

your dryness and let Him begin the work of softening your heart.

Lord, you see every dry and weary heart listening right now.

Thank you that you don't shame us for feeling far from you.

Instead, you invite us to bring that dryness to you. Please

awaken our desire for your presence again. Meet us in the

wilderness places and gently draw us back to you. In Jesus'

name, amen. If this episode has encouraged you, there's a good

chance it will encourage someone else who feels far from God

right now. Would you share it with a friend or loved one? Just

copy the link in the show notes and send it their way. You never

know how much they might need it today. Thanks for helping me

spread the word. It really does mean a lot to me. And thanks for

joining me today on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.

Remember, when your soul feels dry, that thirst can be the very

place where God meets you and stirs your heart again. Come

back next time for more encouragement to help you live

grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great

day.