Drought

I’d been feeling off for, I don’t know, a week or three? It was a familiar patterned progression, but it didn’t diminish the discomfort or the oppressive weight of it. There was a lot going on — with family, work, and school. I’d dealt with worse, though, so what was going on?

I knew before I phrased the question. I’d stopped praying.

There was a time where I would read a coupling of sentences like that and draw legalistic conclusions. Ah, she wasn’t doing her prayer time so God didn’t give her peace.

No, past Callie. I stopped drinking water, so I was thirsty. No one was withholding water from me. I was withholding it from myself. I couldn’t handle all the things going on because I had stopped handing them over to Jesus and was accruing them unto myself. Burdens are heavy, I tell ya. Jesus knows. Which is why He asked — but never forced — me to hand them over. I’d simply stopped.

I don’t know what’s going on in your day, reader. What kind of week or month or year you’ve had. But I’d venture that, like me, you could do with some undivided attention prayer time. Carve out from your study time. Watch one or two less episodes than normal. Leave your phone in another room. And just talk to Him. Give it all over to Him, and ask Him to show you how. Ask for wisdom, for strength, for patience, for help, for peace.

Then leave all the burdens behind. He’s strong enough to carry them. Come apart with Him for awhile today. Just go and pray. Drink deep of the Living Water.