What are the symptoms of spiritual dryness?
Revelation 2:4“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!”
Revelation 3:15-19“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! . . . I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.”
We may be spiritually dry if we are experiencing a lack of enthusiasm for God and an underlying self-satisfaction.
Psalm 81:11No, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around.
Jeremiah 6:10To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the Lord. They don’t want to listen at all.
Jeremiah 7:13“While you were doing these wicked things, says the Lord, I spoke to you about it repeatedly, but you would not listen. I called out to you, but you refused to answer.”
Jeremiah 35:15“‘Time after time I sent you prophets, who told you, “Turn from your wicked ways, and start doing things right. Stop worshiping other gods so that you might live in peace here in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you would not listen to me or obey me.’”
Zephaniah 1:6“I will destroy those who used to worship me but now no longer do. They no longer ask for the Lord’s guidance or seek my blessings.”
Zechariah 7:11-13“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them. Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
We may be spiritually dry if we find ourselves refusing to listen to God’s Word or respond to his warnings.
Jeremiah 2:30“I have punished your children, but they did not respond to my discipline. You yourselves have killed your prophets as a lion kills its prey.”
Jeremiah 5:3Lord, you are searching for honesty. You struck your people, but they paid no attention. You crushed them, but they refused to be corrected. They are determined, with faces set like stone; they have refused to repent.
Jeremiah 17:23They did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention or accept my discipline.
Jeremiah 32:33“My people have turned their backs on me and have refused to return. Even though I diligently taught them, they would not receive instruction or obey.”
We may be spiritually dry if we find ourselves unresponsive to God’s discipline.
Psalm 106:7, 13Our ancestors in Egypt were not impressed by the Lord’s miraculous deeds. They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them. Instead, they rebelled against him at the Red Sea. . . . Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn’t wait for his counsel!
We may be spiritually dry if we have forgotten God’s past acts of kindness and mercy to us.
Ezekiel 21:24“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Again and again you remind me of your sin and your guilt. You don’t even try to hide it! In everything you do, your sins are obvious for all to see. So now the time of your punishment has come!”
Zephaniah 1:12“I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad.”
Ephesians 4:19They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
We may be spiritually dry if we are experiencing apathy toward sin.
Isaiah 32:9-10Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug. In a short time—just a little more than a year—you careless ones will suddenly begin to care. For your fruit crops will fail, and the harvest will never take place.
Luke 21:34“Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware.”
We may be spiritually dry if we are caught up with careless living.
Amos 5:21-24“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”
We may be spiritually dry if we are only pretending in worship.
Malachi 1:6-14The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests: “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name! But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’ You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?’ You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?” asks the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and I will not accept your offerings.”
We may be spiritually dry if we are merely going through the motions in our spiritual lives without feeling any real love or hunger for God.
