THE PIT OF DESOLATION AND DESPAIR

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Most VIZCON'S are designed to be 10-15 minute meditation practices however, on occasion you will come across one that will require longer pauses for contemplation. If you don't complete the practice then good! Come back for more tomorrow and until it completes a work in your soul rhythms. Scripture Contemplation Guide: 1. Invite the Holy Spirit to speak, resonate, reveal, and renovate you. 2. Read through the Scripture passage, Journals, and Poetry writings while you take in the take in the landscape. What thoughts do these meditations provoke? What word or phrase pops of out for you as you enjoy time with Jesus? 3. Read slowly through the passages again and meditate in silence. What do you hear as you wait in God's presence? 4. Pray conversationally through the scripture to your good Father. Ask Him questions, tell Him about the things you are wrestling with in the passage. Cast your cares on Jesus, be candid, thorough, authentic, and most of all be you. 5. Now thank the Lord for the work He is doing in you and then come back for more as needed!

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FEELING WORN OUT ISOLATED AND ALONE

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.

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