It goes by many different names; spiritual rut, dark night of the soul, hitting the wall, bored with the Lord, and spiritually dry to just name a few.  

We read the stories of intimate encounters with God’s presence and inspiring encounters of God’s power and we wonder if we are missing something.  We listen to Jesus’ words about abundant life overflowing and we remember when our lives were at least a little bit more like that.  But the way back…or forward seems at best unknown and at worst daunting.

I think the metaphor that connects with me best is “desert days.”  Have you ever felt spiritually dehydrated?  Dryness of the heart, hard, cracked, arid, dehydrated hearts that feel barren of God.  Maybe you notice it most in your prayer life?  Maybe the dryness has spread to your relationships, a little quicker to get angry, etc.  Or perhaps you rarely get anything out of the Bible when you read it.  One of the first places I tend to notice spiritual dryness is in a passion-drain of my heart.

We would never even think of trying to survive without water, but we will try to go for days and days without God. Maybe a sip here or there, a taste on the weekend, but what if there is more?  What if God wants to pour the life-giving, thirst-quenching water of His Spirit on your soul?

In Isaiah 44:3 – our theme verse for 2012 – God says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.  I will pour my Spirit on your offspring and my blessings on your descendants.” For those of us who have dry-souls, it’s important to note who does what.  The “what” God does is to pour water.  The “what” we do is to simply come thirsty.

For the next eleven weeks – February through April 15^th – we (at Calvary) are going to ponder those words and look at the ways that we can come thirsty to a life-giving God. From worship to generosity, from forgiveness to repentance, from rest to community, our ultimate goal will be to come thirsty and let God pour His stuff into our lives.  Invite a friend…and come thirsty.