Spiritual Dryness: Is the Volume Up Too High?
“Why are these people so slow?” I fumed as I weaved my way between shoppers at Walmart. I had just returned to the U.S. from urban Asia where the throttle of the pace of life is always wide open. Go! Go! Go! My to-do list burned a hole in my pocket. There was no time to waste. No time to sit still. No time to be quiet.
Have you been there? Your internal clock is ticking as you read the Word of God. All the responsibilities of the day intrude on your thoughts. When God’s allotted time is done, you check the devotions box and move to the next item on the checklist. You feel like you’ve done your duty, but something is missing. The intimacy you once experienced with God has fled. You feel spiritually dry. What’s wrong with your spiritual life?
Noise, Hurry, & Crowds
Long before Jim Elliot left the Pacific Northwest to serve as a missionary in Ecuador, he confronted spiritual dryness in his walk with God.1 He diagnosed his problem as a lack of quietness in his life.
In a letter to his mother from his college dormitory, twenty-one-year-old, Elliot quoted Isaiah 30:15: “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” He went on: “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds. If he can keep us hearing radios, gossip, conversation, or even sermons, he is happy. But he will not allow quietness. … I am finding your counsel to get enough sleep most practical, Mother. Not only to be fit for the day and able to relax, but for spiritual awareness and reception one must simply be rested if he is to be blessed. Let us resist the devil in this by avoiding noise as much as we can, purposefully seeking to spend time alone, facing ourselves in the Word. … Satan is aware of where we find our strength.”2
Cultivating Quietness
We must quiet ourselves before God and His Word so that we can hear His voice and follow His leading. Amid the conflict and turbulence of life, we must “be still and know” that God is God (Psalm 46:10). We must lay aside the urgent, yet distracting, matters of the day so we can commune with Him.
Quietness is not an end in itself—it is a means to an end. No, we are not Quakers or Buddhists. We do not seek to empty our minds, but to fill them with God’s life-sustaining truth (Colossians 3:16). We do not seek to empty ourselves, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). As Jesus taught at the home of Martha and Mary, we must take time to lay aside the burdens of duty and service so that we can sit and learn at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:38–40).
Diligence and efficiency are admirable qualities extolled in the Proverbs. Redeeming the time is a command in Scripture (Ephesians 5:16). Being busy serving God and others is a worthy use of the time He has given us. However, we often slide into unbalanced excess which can send us into periods of spiritual dryness.
What do we value most—efficiency in getting things done or intimacy with God?
Slowing Your Pace of Life
Sometimes our spirit is so driven that we cannot slow down during our time with God. Our minds race like a car whose brakes have given out. We can only hold on and try to steer through life. We will either crash, or circumstances will force us down a fruitless side road like a tractor trailer on a runaway truck lane. Our pace of life needs to decelerate so that our devotional times can have quietness.
We must cultivate personal habits that are conducive for spiritual vitality. Like Elliot learned, we need sleep—regular, consistent physical rest. Undisciplined bedtimes can often lead to inconsistent spiritual life. Our bodies require regular physical exercise. We need days off and times of vacation where we take our foot off the gas pedal.
In addition, we must recognize artificial busyness, the perception that I have so much to do when time is just being filled with noise. That noise can be worry that fills any dead time. That noise can be a radio, as in the case of Elliot, or its modern media equivalents like TV, social media, blog posts, and video clips. This noise causes us to feel like we are running from one crisis to the next when, in fact, we are not.
Whatever distracts my ear from hearing God’s voice is destructive to my life.
Related Tips to Combat Spiritual Dryness Caused by a Noisy Mind
- Guard your time with God and let nothing demote its place.
- Keep a paper and pen beside you as you read God’s Word. As important responsibilities of the day pop into your mind, write them down and then banish them from your mind. You can read your reminders after your time with God.
- Set a consistent bedtime and waking time.
- Guard your day off, especially if you are in ministry.
- Stop work at a set time each day, especially if you work from home.
- Take walks or go running in nature without ear buds.
- Add special devotional times in quiet locations like a quiet forest and spend a couple of hours alone with God.
- Stop checking work messages by a set time each evening. They can wait until tomorrow.
- Avoid addiction to media which can be exhausting. Limit screen time.
- Avoid getting sucked into political debates and partisan video clips which rile you up.
- What other tips have you found to be effective to reduce the noise that distracts you from God? Add your thoughts in the comments below.
“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”
Isaiah 30:15
Dr. Conrad serves in urban Asia. He is the author of Daring Devotion: A 31-Day Journey with those who Lived God’s Promises. He blogs at Rooted Thinking, we republish his material by permission.
Photo by Alex Block on Unsplash
- Read more about Jim Elliot in my book, Daring Devotion: A 31-Day Journey with those who Lived God’s Promises. A sequel is also in the works which highlights this same quote. [↩]
- Elisabeth Elliot, The Shadow of the Almighty (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1958), 85. If you have not read this book, order it now. Jim Elliot is by no means a perfect example, but his testimony and authenticity is a challenge to every believer who desires to know and serve God. [↩]