Over the course of our journey with Jesus as we follow Him, we go back and forth between high and low times. These movements are like the ocean tide rising and falling and the waves that keep flowing in and out. They’re like breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. We receive and release. We’re strengthened to face difficulties and emptied to make space to receive new blessings.

Spiritual Peaks & Pits

The spiritual writers of old, in Scripture and church history talk about two basic and recurring movements of God in the spiritual life: We will refer to them as rhythms. There are often referred to as spiritual peaks  and spiritual pits.  I'm sure you have all experienced these rhythm's at both extremes! But however wonderful or difficult these bedfellows can be they are both are essential learning opportunities in our apprenticeship to Jesus.

Spiritual peaks refers to times in which we feel the warmth of God’s presence—we sense that we’re blessed and encouraged by our Lord. We get exciting new insights from the Bible, we enjoy prayer or being quiet in God’s presence, we experience intimacy with God in worship, spiritual conversations are rich, or service feels impactful. The Lord uses these often radical inward movements as an invitation to draw us onward to the next stage in our journey on the Wild Path of Jesus.
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But when things are the Pits and when we feel worn out, isolated, and alone, all the warm fuzzy feelings are fade and God seems far away. We do the same spiritual activities, but they don’t bring satisfaction. We pray, but it seems that God doesn’t answer. We go to church but it’s boring. In our spiritual life, we feel restless, bored, distracted, discouraged—it seems dry as dust and we lose motivation to seek God.
Worst of all, in desolation we probably think we’re regressing spiritually, that we’re doing something wrong and it’s our fault that we can’t feel God’s presence. So to avoid feeling like we are stuck in a Bog with no way out, we pressure ourselves to do more spiritual activities and feel anxious or we judge ourselves for our lack of faith and feel guilty and ashamed. The reality is... there is beauty to be found in our Bog even when it seems desolate!

Understanding the Pits

​Allow me a moment to differentiate between the rhythms associated with the pits and that they are different from being depressed, although they often do and can affect each other. Here goes! Depression is a psychological disorder that is pervasive in our life and personality, it darkens our whole life, including our relationship with God and spiritual activities. I once experienced this personally where Depression was the result of chemical imbalance in my body from taking the very drugs that were supposed to help my depression. Furthermore, I had unresolved grief, repressed anger, relationship problems, emotional detachment, or negative thinking and undealt with sin. All of these things eventually led to several attempts to end my life. Fortunately Jesus had other plans.
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I have concluded that the rhythms associated with being in the pits are also different from ordinary trials. We can see a work that the Lord was doing in Joseph in scripture that shows that his trials were of a spiritual nature that focused on his relationship with God and being moved throughout his life with God and in directions that most of us would not enjoy giving consideration to. Another observation is that in times when we feel like our life is in the pit, the rest of your life may be fine or even peaking, but God seems to be withholding certain blessings you desire. The experience of a spiritual downer could potentially become a pervasive life downer if it bleeds into other areas of your life. The old adage of "Don't let life get you down" seems to resonate with these thoughts so... If your life in in the pits... Look for the cherry on top!

Now although I believe that the pits are spiritual, They are not the same as being disciplined by God for sin. It’s not because you did anything wrong or did not do something good. It’s not because you lack faith. It’s not something you can fix by doing more spiritual disciplines or spending more time at church.

Much to my surprise, in the times I have been in the pits the Lord has intentionally withdrawn from me a felt sense of his presence. Initially it seemed unkind or like abandonment, but actually, it’s a deep work of love by the Spirit for a maturing disciple of Jesus. In this spiritually dry and empty experience, the Lord is always strengthening my character and teaching me how to rely on and appreciate the spiritual reality of the Spirit’s loving presence, even when I can’t feel it. Even so, I would still describe these "Pit" experiences as  feeling Desolate or like being in the Pit of Despair. Like in the book... "The Princess Bride!" Fortunately Jesus is like having a giant in your Posse!

​What is the pit of desolation and despair actually?

The Pit of Desolation and Despair is the place where the Psalmist cries out again and again, “O Lord, why is your face hidden from me?” He often found himself in prolonged seasons of spiritual desolation often referred to as the "Dark Night of the Soul." We can learn to be joyful and fruitful even in a spiritual desert if we adjust our expectations and participate in what the Spirit of Jesus is doing in us.

So what do we do in the pit of desolation and despair?

Note! A wise and healthy response to a spiritual pit is not to try to fix it by generating spiritual peaks. Instead, we need to accept the good provisions of the Holy Spirit’s work, waiting on Him and cooperating with Him. Here are five ways to cooperate with the Spirit when God feels distant or you feel spiritually dry:

Search your Heart

When I find myself in the pit of despair, and spiritual disciplines do not provide encouragement like they used to do; That is when the Spirit of Truth uses spiritual activities and other events as a mirror to show us our heart. That’s a primary purpose of spiritual disciplines, which is why in the Bible the Lord’s teaching is described as a mirror that gives freedom (James 1:25). The Lord may lovingly reveal to us issues like insecurity, spiritual pride, moodiness, expectations of being gratified, approval seeking, or inability to love well in difficulty.
“Search me, God,” we can pray with the Psalmist, “know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
 
 Develop Soul Friendships

The danger in times of desolation is that we may feel bad about our struggle and isolate ourselves. Often we downplay our distress or distract ourselves by staying busy. Instead, if we share our struggles with a soul friend, we open a new channel to receive God’s compassion to feel understood, validated, strengthened, and guided. When we are disheartened or weak, we need encouragement and help (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

Grow in the Grace you are Receiving!

In times of spiritual peaks, we like to think that God is blessing us because of the disciplines or good works we do. Our inflated pride comes back to haunt us when we interpret our experiences of the pits as being due to our sin or lack of faithful devotion to Christ. Peaks and Pits are both gifts of God’s grace for us to receive; they are not experiences that we generate.

Be Weaned off of Emotional Blessings!

I have found that when I am in the Pits that God shows me the ways that I’ve become dependant on feelings of being blessed by God to have balance and confidence. In John of the Cross’ metaphor, we’re like small children that need to be weaned off the bottle of spiritual highs and warm fuzzies!. Previously, we loved and served the Lord largely because it made us feel good and significant. Now our opportunity is to trust the Spirit’s presence beyond our feelings, discovering a spiritual-relational way of knowing that is more than emotions. We’re learning to love each member of the Trinity for who they are, not just when they make us feel happy.

Gaze upon His Beauty to Persevere!

If we cooperate with the ministry of Christ in trials then we can develop the kind of faith that endures to trust in God—even if we’re not feeling loved or our life circumstances are bad (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4).
David suffered so much injustice at the hands of Saul and had to live in the desert for years foraging for food, sleeping on rocks, being hunted like a criminal year after year. Yet he had faithfully served Saul, risking his life as a soldier in his army, playing the harp for the king when he was depressed, and submitting to the king’s authority. Yet he prayed, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).

Jesus’ Beatitudes in Peaks and Pits
 
It is when we are on the Peaks that we need to hear Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are you in your good times because yours is the kingdom of the heavens” (Matthew 5:3-12 paraphrased). In other words, when we feel that God is blessing our circumstances this is not our greatest blessing, rather it’s in submitting to the Lord Jesus and joining him in his Father’s world.
Similarly, When we are in the Pit of Despair, we need to hear Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are you in your bad times because yours is the kingdom of the heavens.” When we feel distant from God or like God is not blessing our circumstances, we need to re-focus on the best blessing of bringing our life to our Redeemer in his Kingdom of Light.

The Lenten season is an often misunderstood sometime avoided, and even an abused seasonal opportunity, The truth of the matter is... That it should be year round in our walks as followers of Christ, But, in many cases has become a legalistic norm. Even having grown up in a Christian home, I had a misconstrued comprehension of the Lenten season as a whole, Never was I taught that it was a season to be enjoyed.
I sought to find out more from authors, pastors, and spiritual directors about the vitality of the Lenten season, its purpose for us as Christians and how it can be transformational in our personal walks with Christ. 

The Lenten season has been observed by a variety of God’s people for thousands of years. For some, It has been a liturgical and even legalistic approach to earn favor with Christs' finished work, and for others it has lacked the relational aspects of grace and invitation by that come from a loving Savior. (We did that, not Jesus!) 

The whole simplistic purpose of this season has been to reorient Christians with a vantage point of understanding Jesus’ suffering, and sacrificial death on the cross. Lent consists of forty days plus an additional six Sundays, that later culminates in Easter with a focus on Jesus’ resurrection and the ensuing celebration of Jesus being risen and the gift of salvation that we as Christians have through Jesus’ finished work on the cross! But this season doesn't have to start and stop there!

There is often a component to giving up something for the Lenten season, that in many cases is something that distracts or distorts us from our awareness of the Lord’s presence. When we desire to embrace what we have given up during this season, the hope would be that we would press into Jesus’ suffering for our sins, and be drawn into the transformational power of the good news, and not embrace what we have given up. It is not about giving up something in particular, for our own selfish ambition or self glory, but in this season of giving something up, Is it and wonder that so much scripture deals with the cutting of of our flesh! I have found personally that this season offers me an opportunity to become a living sacrifice, to put the old man to death with Christ, to practice repentance at every turn. When I step into this rhythm I am able to abide in Christ, grow in Him, experience renovation, regeneration, and resurrection in my life and it become contagious, radical, and restores my joy as I let Him transform my heart. I have renamed the season of Lent for myself personally. The season has been extended to become a year round invitation and I now call it "Preparations for Son Rise!"  

Now I have a perpetual invitation from Jesus to ask myself questions that count like; How will I reorient my heart today, Do I frequently remember the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus Christ for my sins? Am I allowing Jesus to do a deeper work, am I enjoying an intimate walk with Him.

My hope is that as we move towards Easter, and the day after, and the days and weeks, and months after that; That God would transform our hearts where you and I would rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection, in our personal relationship with Him and in the gift of salvation! Preparing for Son rise is a gift for all Christians that prepares our hearts for Jesus' resurrection and if you have not embraced this open season previously, I want to encourage you to give it a try. I would love to hear how the Lord works in you, and what He does through you in the comments below as we make our way towards tomorrow's Son-rise! 

Here are some passages to pray through conversationally in preparation for todays Son-rise!

We must lay aside the old self!

Ephesians 4:21
...if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught Him just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and you put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

We must allow our old self to be renewed and not held hostage by the old self.

Colossians 3:9,
“Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created Him.”

Prov 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

We have been renewed by His mercy and not the public, religious, opinions that lack the discernment of heart.
 
All have a sometimes moment.

Titus 3:3-6 KJV
[3] For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. [4] But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, [5] Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; [6] Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

All have a sometimes moment.

Ephesians 2:13 KJV
[13] But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

All have a sometimes moment.

Ephesians 5:8 KJV
[8] For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Titus 2:11-15 KJV
[11] For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, [12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; [13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; [14] Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. [15] These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Titus 2:7-8 KJV
[7] In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, [8] Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

Isaiah 57:15 KJV
[15] For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place , with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Psalm 34:22 KJV
[22] The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Psalm 34:17-20 KJV
[17] The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. [18] The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. [19] Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. [20] He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV
[9] And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Everything we magnify becomes amplified. Will we magnify our troubles, our fears, our tears. I will magnify the Lord! 

Psalm 34:3-6 KJV
[3] O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. [4] I sought the Lord , and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. [5] They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. [6] This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him , and saved him out of all his troubles.

Ephesians 1:17-23

The Full Gospel of Grace beyond just the aspect of pardon for those who are in Christ. We have been fully restored to experience the fullness of His strength, power, authority…. 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21
Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.