Faith over Feelings

     I've been there before. There's not a single tree in sight across miles of dry desert land. If your lucky it rains once or twice a year. The air and earth so dry the wind blows the dehydrated sands across the desert in upward spirals before it vanishes back onto the ground in which it once laid. The sun shining forth with such intensity that any measure of water in the earth quickly evaporates just as soon as it hits the ground. I assure you the desert lands are very dry. Unfortunately, there are times in which the Christian soldier also enters spiritual seasons as dry as the desert sands. You know the need for sustaining water, but finding the strength to run to it requires energy you don't even have. How then can you come to it? The answer is in the gospel- dear one, you can't. It is the LORD who reaches down and provides the living water from which you must drink. It is the LORD who provides comfort when you can find no rest. So then you say, "But what if you cannot feel HE is doing so?" or perhaps "But yet I am still in the midst of this dry season!". Dear soldier march forward encouraged by such thought. If you are aware of your dry season lift your hands upward in praise for the acknowledgement of this truth. To know that you are in the midst of a drought is to know there is a need for living water- for that of CHRIST. To know the drought is to know the water- this is grace in and of itself. Yet again you cry out "I do not feel the nearness of GOD!", remember deeply within your heart- relationship with CHRIST is not based on feelings it is solely dependent on faith. "GOD is near" is not a feeling, its a biblical truth- one you may not always feel yet must fight to continuously believe. Charismatic expectation can be a deadly poison in the midst of a dry season- it can cause one to fall into so deep a doubt that one would stray further away from saving grace. It's there. Grace is indeed faithfully there. By contrast in the way the sun beats down onto dry earth giving forth hallucinations of water- CHRIST is truly and surely there. Dear one, cling to the truth which is able sustain personal relationship with a HOLY GOD: faith can surely triumph over feelings. March forward in the dry desert land to which you currently endure for hope has not escaped you -it is with you.

Much Love, 

Frances Hope