Six Practices for Spiritual Rehydration
by Katie Harding on June 10, 2024
Where are you? It’s a question I often ask my husband when he is out hiking and a question our kids ask us, or we often ask them. Although the answers vary, they indicate our physical location at that moment. On the overlook. At the store. In the car. At the office. Or as timing often dictates, In the bathroom, we yell from behind a closed door.
But when God asks that question, He is not trying to determine where we are physically. He’s interested in our spiritual location. How far is our heart from His?
Where are you? That was the same question God asked Adam and Eve when He was looking for them in the garden. He was there to meet with them at their regular place, in their regular way, at their regular time, but they weren’t there. They had distanced themselves from God, hiding in their shame.
I, too, have felt that distance. God was waiting, but I wasn’t showing up. I desperately desired time with Him, but somehow, life was so distracting and something always seemed more important. There were always things to do, people to see, and places to go. All I had left was the energy to find my way to bed only to get up the next morning and start the routine all over again. As time went on, I became more and more spiritually dehydrated as my spiritual life began to resemble that of my physical life. In fact, I can remember the day God asked, How can you understand the power of living water when you can’t understand the power of basic water? He was right. I was both physically and spiritually parched from not getting enough water.
In talking with other women, I’ve discovered I wasn’t alone in my spiritual dehydration. Many others have experienced dry patches in their journey with Jesus. So, how can we break up the dry ground and rehydrate?
Here are six practices I have found helpful:
1. Make it a priority to meet with Jesus every day by reading your Bible, even if it is 5-10 minutes in the beginning.
2. Confess your spiritual dryness to one or two friends who will commit to praying for you.
3. Sing a song that “fills your tank,” and sing it again and again. One of my favorites is As the Deer sung by Shane & Shane.
4. Use a devotional to help apply God’s Word to your day. I started using My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers once again. It is a favorite because His words continually challenge my faithfulness as a disciple of Christ.
5. Allow yourself time to just sit and meditate. Meditation is a time to detach from the world and attach to Jesus, as I learned from Richard Foster in his book, The Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.
6. Set aside a dedicated time each day for praying on God’s armor as stated in Ephesians 6:10-18. It’s amazing how it helps. I pray it on myself and others every day.
What did I find as I began to incorporate these practices into my day and center my life around God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit once again? The cracks in my spiritual life, like the cracks in my hands began to disappear. I was becoming more hydrated as I soaked more and more in God’s living water. But even more importantly, like Adam and Eve, I discovered God was not only there waiting for my return, but He was also pursuing me and encouraging my return, as well. He was calling to me, letting me know He was there to commune with me, and urging me to step out of my place of hiding and back into the light by asking this one question, Where are you?