Spiritual Disciplines in Every Season
I slumped into the chair, wilting next to our adoptive daughter’s plastic crib in the dimly lit NICU room. Her eyes at last fluttered and closed, and I knew I should do my quiet time. But my weary heart and body could barely muster pulling my Bible and journal out of my bag. I needed God more in this season than ever before. Yet maintaining any semblance of spiritual discipline seemed impossible while living indefinitely in a hospital room. All I could do was send up short, exhausted prayers before falling asleep myself.
This wasn’t the first time I’d felt discouragement in my spiritual growth. I struggled with doubt and shame when I transitioned from being an independent college student to learning how to live with my new husband. I became spiritually apathetic when slow mornings as a graduate student transitioned to long, tiring commutes for my first job. I felt spiritual (and physical) exhaustion after we brought home our first child, then our second. And I walked through a spiritual wilderness when a global pandemic took away any semblance of routine.
Each time life changed, I was frustrated that the rhythms of Scripture reading, prayer, and memorization I had worked hard to cultivate crumbled like sandcastles. Yet it was during these difficult seasons that God taught me that my spiritual growth was not based on my own efforts but in his gracious and powerful work in me.
In his Word, God has given us an abundance of “tools” for spiritual growth: Bible study, prayer, fasting, corporate worship, confession, meditation, silence, and more. Each of these tools is a gracious gift God uses to draw us to himself, but not every tool will be available to us in each season. A nursing mom may not be able to fast from food. A daughter caring for her aging parents may not have many moments of solitude or silence. During the global pandemic, many of us missed the opportunity for in-person corporate worship. So how can we grow spiritually during difficult seasons of life?
“When we are at our weakest, that is when God shows himself the strongest.”
Accept God’s Grace for Your Season
As a natural rule follower, I want boxes to check. I pride myself in a completed habit tracker or to-do list. Yet when those boxes are left incomplete and the checklist remains unfinished, I feel ashamed. I wonder how God can use me in such a weak and limited season.
Yet rather than be disappointed with our frailty, Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). God understands the limitations of our heart, mind, and body. Instead of rejecting us in these humbling seasons, God gives us more grace (James 4:6). When we are at our weakest, that is when God shows himself the strongest.
We don’t have to feel guilty when our spiritual disciplines don’t thrive like they have in previous seasons of life. God delights in our prayers—both short and long. He can use both our hour spent in Bible study and our brief meditation on a single Bible verse. He allows us to serve his church and also be served by his church.
God is not looking for a perfect performance. He’s looking for a heart that longs to be near him. When we come to him with all our weariness, Jesus promises to give us rest (Matt. 11:28). His grace is sufficient for us, because his power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Rather than feel ashamed of our limitations in spiritually dry, emotionally exhausting, or physically weak seasons, we can rejoice that Christ’s power gives us strength.
Remember God’s Work in You
After giving birth to our second child (during the pandemic no less), my spiritual life dried up like the desert. Sometimes, the closest I could come to a “quiet time” was reading Bible storybooks to my two children. I didn’t feel like I was growing, but God was using even these simple stories to plant truth into my heart.
One evening during this dry season, when I was driving through a terrible storm, the child-like paraphrase of Psalm 23 from The Jesus Storybook Bible came to mind. I prayed the simple verses, and they carried me through until we reached our destination. When I finally parked, I started crying, realizing that God had not forgotten about me in my exhausting season. Rather, he was using something as basic as a children’s storybook to remind me that he is my Good Shepherd.
Even when I could not see or feel it, God was working in me. Even when my life lacked any semblance of spiritual discipline, God was using his Word to grow me closer to him. Sometimes, the best we can do is listen to an audio Bible, read a children’s Bible, or cling to a single verse—and in God’s grace, that is enough.
As you “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” you can trust that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13). God takes whatever meager efforts we can offer and turns them into abundant growth.
Be Encouraged by God’s People
I scroll social media and see a friend post a picture sitting with her Bible open at a coffee shop. I wish I could do that. I double tap on a friend’s announcement about a ministry opportunity I would love to pursue. If I wasn’t in this season, I could do so much more. With each swipe and tap, I become more frustrated with my current stage of life.
During difficult seasons, it’s easy to pull away from Christian community and hide behind a screen. Yet when I isolate myself from the body of Christ, I cut myself off from those God has placed in my life to carry me through hard seasons. The author of Hebrews reminds us, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24–25).
There have been dry and dark seasons where the Lord has used the spiritual disciplines of sisters in Christ to sustain me. When I didn’t know how to pray, they interceded for me. When I was too ashamed to read God’s Word, they spoke his truth over me. When I couldn’t attend church, they intentionally reached out to me.
From the beginning, God said it was not good for humanity to be alone (Gen. 2:18). He created us to live in community. When we bring our pain, our questions, and our needs to Christ, he often uses his hands and feet—his church—to care for us.
“Rather than feel ashamed of our limitations in spiritually dry, emotionally exhausting, or physically weak seasons, we can rejoice that Christ’s power gives us strength. ”
Keep Walking Toward God
There will be seasons where spiritual disciplines feel easier to maintain. When your children at last sleep through the night. When stress at work doesn’t carry over into your evening. When you delight rather than dread driving to your local church.
Still, in many seasons, spiritual disciplines will feel like a fight. You’ll read Scripture by the light of a hospital lamp. You’ll pray at 2:00 a.m. while rocking a teething baby. You’ll keep a sticky note with a memory verse on your work computer.
God is not disappointed when you can’t stay awake during your Bible study, when you must step out of worship service for an overstimulated child, or when your stressed mind takes weeks to memorize a single verse. No, with each weary step you take towards him, he is running after you (Luke 15:20).
Can we cultivate spiritual disciplines during difficult seasons? Absolutely. Might it look different than past seasons of life? Definitely. But no matter what we face, when we are motivated by God’s grace, empowered by his Spirit, and encouraged by his body, we can grow spiritually even in—and especially in—our hard stages of life.
RESOURCES FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen articles are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select writers each week, articles shared on the Journeywomen website do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the authors or any other resources mentioned.
