Spiritual highs and lows. We all experience them at some point in our Christian walk. There are days when God seems extremely close, our desire to pray and read his word very strong, and when we long to tell others about him. And then there are the days when ours prayers seem mere words, reading the Bible is a chore, and we commit that sin again. CS Lewis reminds us that no spiritual high or low will last forever. And they don’t. But what results is almost as frustrating as being stuck in a low, as we oscillate between highs and lows, but feel like there’s no overall progress. Life on the sine-wave. Not drifting from God but not drawing closer, saved but not growing. But there are 3 important things to remember about the sine-wave experience.
Photo: Brandon Daniel, reused under CC License
Ups and downs are inevitable
Justified but not yet fully sanctified, redeemed but not yet transformed, call it what you like. We still live in a broken world and we still struggle with sin. We are God’s, and he is in our hearts, but the clean-up operation is taking longer than we would like and so we oscillate; we win the battle with one sin but then it comes back to life, or another rises to battle. We are all in a daily struggle with sin. Oscillating on the sine-wave is not a sign that we are weak, but on the contrary, shows that we are truly in Christ.
God doesn’t change
The great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not.
CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
The Bible constantly reminds us that God is unchanging. He does not oscillate but remains loving, merciful, just and good. His love for us never changes, only our perception of it. There is nothing we can do, nothing we can be, nothing that will separate us from his love. He chose us when we were sinners and rebels; he will remain there in the oscillations. So we can praise him regardless of where we are on the sine-wave, because he still loves us and is with us, working for his plan and for good.
There can be progress alongside the ups and downs
Our life is not quite following the sine wave. It’s really more like the graph of x+sin(2x):
Though we may not feel it, through the ups and downs, God is constantly transforming us to be more like him. We are definitely not a finished work, but that means that there’s space for us to grow closer to God, day by day. Try this; next time you are in a spiritual dip, think back to the last time you were in one, or one you were in last year, and see if you can find any changes or ways God has brought you closer to him. More often than not, you will find something, or someone else will point it out for you. So although it feels like you are going nowhere, take heart. Because you’re not the one doing the sanctifying work – God is; and that means you are making progress. And one day you will be a finished work of God, made perfect like his Son.
So take heart, and, with our all-powerful, all-loving God at your side, keep on going on the x+sin(2x) wave!
