Praying in Times of Drought

God lives and works today, and yet don't we all know times when our prayers seem to bounce off the walls? When they don't seem to reach God? At such times we are tempted to lose faith, to wonder if God really is alive, and we're even tempted to quit praying altogether. If you have stopped praying for this reason, today's meditation by Basilea Schlink can bring you comfort and practical help. Time and again we go through periods when we have no desire to pray at all.

Our souls are so arid and dried out that it seems as though God has forsaken us. If at such times there's no obstacle in our hearts, no unrepented sin which prevents our prayers from reaching God, then it must be that the Lord is deliberately leading us through such dry periods. A plan of God is behind it, and God's plans are always wonderful.

Now everything depends upon how I use this time. One day, God showed me the way to turn such times of spiritual drought into times of special blessing. For example, when we can hardly form a single thought of our own in prayer, because everything seems to be dead, then we can pray for others by pronouncing the victorious name of Jesus over all our prayer concerns, or by praying hymns of prayer or litanies of victory.

These prayers in spiritual night contain special blessing and will be heard by God. For they are prayers into which a sacrifice has been laid. They have cost us an effort of faith.

Therefore, they're very precious to the Lord. In addition to this, I learned something else. The Lord gives us an opportunity to make our prayers come alive in such dry periods.

This opportunity is Thanksgiving. I have a little Thanksgiving booklet. Every evening, I write down everything I have to thank God for.

And when I take up these points saying thank you for them, or singing God a song of thanksgiving, then I can begin to praise Him and thank Him for the new life, which is born out of spiritual night and drought. These periods cleanse my soul from all impurities, from unspiritual love, and from enthusiastic emotional motives for prayer. New spiritual life is born out of this spiritual death, which the soul has to suffer.

During one of these times, I wrote the song, I sing, I sing, God adoring, My praise to heaven absorbing, May my songs of praise give pleasure to Thee. And verse after verse, I had to sing songs of praise for everything that was difficult for me. The hours of temptation, the ways through the night, and how they bring blessing.

As I sang, the darkness lost its power over me. My heart was comforted by saying yes to the will of God and to His ways, even in drought and darkness. I sing, I sing, God adoring, My praise to heaven absorbing, May my song of praise give pleasure to Thee.

I sing of God's care and guiding, The way of His own providing, The path through the night with blessings upright. You have been listening to a program written by Basilea Schlink of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www.canaan.org. That's K-A-N-A-A-N dot org.

If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet. If you do not have access to the web, please contact this radio station for our postal address. God bless you.