"Spiritual High"

After another blessed evening with my bible study, my friends and I were all in the car on the way back to campus when someone brought up the topic of Quiet Times. Now if you are wondering, What in the world is a Quiet Time?, it is a time during the day that you spend apart from everything and everyone, where it's just You spending time with God. We were all discussing the many ways in which you can have a Quiet Time. Whether it be through having a conversation through prayer, praising God while listening to worship music, or just sitting in silence maybe somewhere in nature where there are no distractions,  where you can enjoy the peace and quiet and just listen to what God is telling you.

One of my friends then brought up a great point that most Christians believe feel must happen during their Quiet Time: to find something captivating and new. Something that they have never learned before, that makes them want to do something greater with their lives because of it, and makes their day brighter and fuller. But what's wrong with the idea that you're supposed to have a revelational moment every time you have a Quiet Time with God might let you down when you don't get that feeling. But let me tell you now, That's Okay! There are going to be days when you may just feel like an ordinary Christian. You go to church, read your bible, and pray everyday, but you don't feel this overflowing joy when your doing all these things. That's normal! What people always expect and are looking for in these things is what I like to call a "Spiritual High".

It's the kind of feeling you get when you go on a church retreat. You're with all of your friends, the music is joyous and fun, the skits are hilarious, the message is powerful, and small group talks are emotional. The atmosphere and the experience all bring this overflowing joy and "high" that lifts up your spirits and makes you feel like you can take on the world. It's the kind of feeling that every Christian chases after, and almost expects, when they have a Quiet Time with God. But instead of looking forward to spending time with God, we rather look forward to the spiritual high from the time that we spend with Him. And it lets us down whenever we don't get that same feeling, that same spiritual high as before. That's because Quiet Times are meant for growing in our relationship with our Heavenly Father and not about gaining a spiritual high.

Because we put this notion in our heads that we should always feel some sort of "Spiritual High" when we have Quiet Times, we set ourselves up for being let down from our high expectations. Of course God will always teach us something new, but God doesn't promise a "high" to come from reading his word, it's just a bonus. But like I said, don't let this discourage you.

If God decided to always let us have this "Spiritual High", soon enough it would lose its meaning and would become a normal feeling. We would forget the reasons why we got that feeling in the first place. And if we we're always high up, we would never ask God for help, we would forget to pray to God, we would forget who it is we are living for and start living for ourselves. God allows us to go through this circle of highs and lows to keep us in constant reminder of who it is we are living for, who it is we should thank, why it is we pray, and what we should be doing.

So NEVER be discouraged if you feeling like you're not learning something new and amazing every time you have a Quiet Time with God. God reaches out to us all the time, and even at random times in our lives, to give us reminders of His never-failing love for us. So be on the look out! And lastly, I encourage you to continue, or if you have not yet, start having Quiet Times with God and remember to not be searching for a "high", but rather be searching for God. God Bless!