Sunday Devotion: Dry Spell

Janet Rubin

The dreaded words. Writer’s block. No inspiration, no ideas, no motivation. Just a curser, perpetually blinking on a blank computer screen, mocking me, daring me to type another crumby paragraph. I stare out the window, grumble at my family, and begin to consider that, perhaps, fly-fishing would be a better hobby for me than writing.

I close the document (No, I do NOT want to save the changes!), and find other things to do. I avoid my story for a week. Two weeks.

No ideas come. I talk to writers I know and read articles and interviews with those I don’t. Every one of them has the same annoying advice: “Just sit down and write.”

It becomes clear that no lightening bolt of inspiration is going to come down from the sky and zap me. I force myself to return to my story. I read it again, take a deep breath, and begin typing. What I’m writing is horrible. Boring. Drivel. But I keep on. In a while, a funny thing happens. I write a sentence that doesn’t exactly stink. An idea is conceived. I sit up straighter, type faster. The annoying people were right. The only cure to my problem was sitting and writing.

Sometimes I get the spiritual equivalent of writer’s block. For no evident reason, I begin to feel spiritually dry—distant from God, in a rut. My prayers feel as if they don’t make it past the ceiling. My Bible-reading is mechanical. No verses jump out and speak to my heart; no spiritual warm fuzzies accompany my praise.

During these times, I don’t feel like spending time with God. It seems pointless. But if I don’t, the problem only worsens. I’ve come to believe that God allows these dry spells to test my faithfulness. To see if I will seek Him even when He seems far away, or if I will just give up. These are the times when I need to hold on to God’s promises and persevere, believing that He will keep them.

Time after time, God tells us in His Word, that if we seek Him, we will find him. He promised never to leave us or forsake us. The cure for a spiritual dry season is similar to the cure for writer’s block: Just sit and pray. And pray and pray and pray. It's that step of faith- sitting at your keyboard when you feel you have nothing to give, or kneeling before your God with nothing but a mustard seed-sized bit of faith- that makes the difference. Your faithfulness and persistent seeking will please God. And yes, your inspiration will return.

Hebrews 11:6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.