For When You Feel Far From God
My eyes fluttered open slowly at the first streams of sunrise streaming through the blinds. I opened the bible sitting on my nightstand to begin the most peaceful hour of constant communion with God through prayer and reading of His word Ive ever had. The hour I normally would have spent with Jesus each morning quickly turned into two and then a whole day of constant communication and intimacy with God.
And then I woke up.
Lets get real for a minute.
Im in the Season of Littles right now, and my life revolves largely around survival my survival, the kids, my husband, even the pets . With the chaos of elementary school-aged kids and toddlers, jobs, and a flurry of daily responsibilities, each of us are simply trying to get to bedtime in one piece and still semi-liking one another. (Im only sort-of exaggerating.)
Day to day life is messy for me, and I am willing to bet you have some crazy and some mess all your own.
This dream of a peaceful, very in-depth and is just that a dream for me.
Sure, there are great and meaningful times I spend with God in prayer and studying His Word. But more often than not my time with God looks very little like my dream.
And if Im not careful, those meaningful and great times can even become a distant memory. Where I cant even remember the last intimate time I had with Jesus.
Because of spiritual paralysis.
Have you been through a time when youve felt disconnected from Him?
Paralysis is, in its most basic definition, the inability to act or function. So spiritual paralysis is the same but directed at the soul. Spiritual paralysis is when our soul, the part of us directly connected to God, is unable to function. It often feels like Jesus is off teaching everybody else, but not us. Where everyone else has stories of what Hes done recently, or what Hes told them. They can see, feel & hear Him.
But it feels like Hes not with us.
Yes, of course, His name, Emmanuel literally means God with us.
However, sometimes we cant see or hear him because of the static tuning out our minds and our hearts.
So I think sometimes we need to go find Him.
The bible tells the story of a paralyzed mans friends taking him to Jesus in Luke chapter five.
These guys carrying their friend remind me of me in the end of verse 18 and 1st half of verse 19:
they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd
Sometimes I cant find a way to Jesus. I try and try, but cant.
Because of the crowd.
I set my alarm earlier, my kids get up earlier.
I change my quiet time from morning to right before bed, and I am so tired I fall asleep.
I set a time during the day I know it will quiet without kids, but then an unexpected visitor shows up.
Sometimes the crowd - the kids, our schedules, our own bodies, and other obligations - get in my way to see Him.
The Message version of Luke 18-20 is interesting:
they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus.
In the middle of the mess, they placed their mess in front of Jesus.
And howd they do it? They went up on the roof and removed tiles? Who does that?
They were creative and bold in their strategy to be with Jesus, to heal the paralyzed.
And guess what? It worked.
Impressed by their bold belief, he said, Friend, I forgive your sins. (verse 20)
Sometimes we have to get creative to be with our Creator.
And thats what I want to encourage all of us to do today.
Do something bold. Do something creative.Lets do something that isnt normal to be with our God.
Maybe that means we hire a babysitter and go for a long walk around the neighborhood with our audiobook bible come through a set of headphones.
Maybe that means spending fifteen minutes locked in the office bathroom stall, reading Gods Word.
Whatever it is, we need to do it.
Because God will see our faith and heal our paralysis.
Every. Time.
Much love to you today, mama Heres to keeping the neighbors roof intact and getting creative today.
Kristin | You can read more about spiritual paralysis in More for Mom: Living Your Whole & Holy Life.