Time-out

God uses loneliness, solitude, a trough in your life, a seemingly unproductive phase, to build your spiritual resources, to help you strengthen yourself in Him. This seemingly unproductive period, or loneliness, in which time doesn’t seem to move, is given to you for a reason. God gives you less physical or worldly stuff to do, less people to emotionally engage with, specifically so that you can channel your energies towards spiritual development.

So when you’re pushed into a corner with little to do e.g. a time of unemployment, or sickness, separation from a loved one, a suspension from your normal routine, God’s actually giving you that time to build yourself spiritually, find that spiritual armour and practice using it. So that when it’s time to go to war for Him, you’ve learnt how to use that armour: you’ve figured out how to work it and put it to effective use.

Max Lucado says, “Rush your giant with a God-saturated soul.” Your soul can be God-saturated only if you take time to soak Him up. The fallow periods in our lives are the best times to do so.

Two instances which effectively illustrate how God uses loneliness or low phases to build us up spiritually can be seen in David’s life:

*When he was tending sheep: sitting out there on his own, while his brothers got to do cool stuff. Alone, with no one to talk to, that was probably the time he got grounded and rooted in his Maker. And because David’s spiritual resources were so deep, he was able to tap into them in times of trouble.

*When he was fleeing from Saul: hiding in caves; an outcast, completely, utterly alone. He clung to God during this time, trusting Him to work things out.

Because David fuelled his spiritual tank during his sheep-watching days, he knew where to turn, whom to cry to, during his hiding-in-the-cave days.

So when God inserts a time-out in your life which you never planned or wished, it’s because He knows you need to stock up on reserves, build up your resources and learn to use that heavenly armour for times ahead. Because David had resources to tap, he’s the only one who could say of Goliath, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” He was the only one who hadn’t lost sight of His Maker. The only one with no illusions about his almighty, omnipotent Father, His resources or His might.