I Samuel 3:1
“Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli. And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.”
This was a dry time in Israel’s history. God’s Words and visions weren’t common. This could be for two reasons. Some seasons are dry. Nothing was done wrong. The other reason is that we’ve drifted from God and have grown calloused to His voice.
We will have dry times. Like the high heat of summer and long cold time of winter. It has the feeling of drudgery. We know that He is there in these dry spells. However, He feels distant. I’m reminded of the Footprints poem. The person said, “I see only one set of footprints in my most difficult times. Where were You? He said, ‘It was then that I carried you.'”
Why do we have these dry times? It’s builds our trust. When young in Christ, we need to sense Him more. We will get all sorts of conformations. Church messages will feel like they were tailored to us. We need this to build a connection with God, scripture and church.
The dry times build our faith. We don’t need to hear from God to know He’s there and loves us. Part of the definition of faith trusts when we don’t feel Him there. Much like a couple that’s been married for decades don’t need constant affirmation. There’s a knowing that they are there for each other.
The second type of dry spell is when we’ve gotten too busy and not given God the time He needs. Our hearts grow hard. Pharaoh is the famous example of the one who ignores God. God attempted to speak to him on many occasions. He ignored those messages. The words that were used in scripture were, “Pharaoh hardened his heart.”
We can also harden our hearts. We might get a sense of something, our conscience might bring something to our attention or it could be through someone else’s comment. These could be God. Sometimes we ignore them. Hebrews 5:11 speaks of how we can become dull of hearing. Ignoring God’s words will do that. While He is speaking, our practice of ignoring reduces our sensitivity to hear him. Through time we no longer hear those words.
Lord, thank You that You want to and do speak to us. Help us to trust in the dry seasons. Help us not to grow hard in heart that we can no longer hear You.