Boredom & Feeling Attractive

The Secrets of The Secret Place

The Secret of Boredom & Feeling Attractive (V3.0)

This is the final message on The Secret Place part 2!!

You made it!

The last ten messages have all been about investing more time in The Secret Place.

We have given you a number of “things” you can do while in The Secret Place.

Today is different.

Today is still a challenge that takes time.

However, today we don’t have a tangible practice you can do like retreating, journaling, praying scripture, or fasting.

Today is an encouraging message for when the days in The Secret Place get hard.

Today’s secret really isn’t a hidden secret.

Today is about what to do when the days of boredom come & when you no longer feel attractive to God, when you feel like giving up!!

Pastor Eric’s Message Last Week:

Don’t give up.

Jesus is revealed to the world through people who don’t give up.

Don’t give up.

Double messages, pay attention. This week is also “Don’t Give Up”

Testimony Story:

Hide from kids. Whoowho!!!!!

Sometimes I would jump out and scare them quickly.

Sometimes I would let them find me quickly.

Other times they pass me and I let them get a glimpse of me as I run the other way.

Other times I would let the game drag on and on until the moment they quit. The moment they quit I would come running to them.

I love watching my kids scramble to look for me.

I think God thinks the same about us.

The Secret of Boredom & Feeling Attractive

Let’s be honest today.

Everyone gets bored praying.

Everyone gets bored reading the Bible.

Everyone gets bored worshiping.

I recently shared some of these ideas with a friend and the response came back, “I don’t think I have ever been bored in The Secret Place.”

Maybe for you the word for is not bored.

Maybe for you it is a lack of motivation.

There are also times in which you spend time praying, reading, and worshiping but it feels like it is falling on deaf ears.

You feel like God is not paying attention to you.

You are “doing the things” but no matter how much time you spend the season is dry.

You question if you are even attractive to God any more.

Whether it is boredom, lack of motivation, a dry season; days come:

That you don’t feel like going to The Secret Place.

Or you feel like your investment of time will be better spent doing something else.

Church…………………..Everyone will go through these days.

When these days come we have two responses:

Draw closer to Father OR

Complain, Doubt, & Question

Where are you God?

Why are you not answering my prayers?

I feel like you are not listening to me?

I can’t feel you!

Today I want to spend our time on this second response of complaining, doubting, and questioning.

As I was praying and meditating on this message a few questions came to me:

Is it a sign of unbelief to lament & complain to God?

Is it okay to ask God where his eyes and favor are?

Why do the ebbs & flows come?

IS IT A SIGN OF UNBELIEF TO LAMENT & COMPLAIN TO GOD?

To answer this question let’s look to the book of Psalms.

Roughly ⅓, 50 out of 150, of the Psalms have been classified as laments or complaints.

These laments and complaints cover many different topics.

Complaints about enemies

Laments of sickness

Laments of sin

Complaints of suffering

If 1/3 of the Psalms have lament or complaints, I think it is safe to say our laments and complaints, within reason, are okay with Father.

I believe questioning God and His presence is actually a demonstration of faith, again within reason.

How can that be a demonstration of faith?

When we are lamenting or complaining to God asking Him, “God where are you?” Where are your eyes pointed?

Where is your voice pointed?

They are pointed at Him.

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalms 121:1–2

The Psalmists actually normalize questioning God's apparent absence and they do so without equating the questioning with unbelief.

The psalmists repeatedly express a feeling of abandonment while continuing to address God.

That fact demonstrates that lamenting and complaining can be a sign of faith.

The lamenting and complaining of the Psalmists all serve a deeper objective.

They are all used by God to lead to deeper faith, deeper trust, and deeper relationship.

IS IT OKAY TO ASK GOD WHERE HIS EYES AND FAVOR ARE?

We have established that lamenting and complaining is actually a sign of belief.

I want to stress…………within reason. At some point you have to stop lamenting and complaining…………and move to trust.

What about asking God where his eyes and favor are?

Is that testing God?

Is it okay to ask Him where He is?

How many of the Psalms deal specifically with the question, “God why are your eyes gone from me?”

It turns out that 16% of the Psalms, 24 out of 150, question, fear, or complain that God's presence, attention, favor, help, or face has been withdrawn.

(Psalms 6, 10, 13, 22, 27, 28, 30, 31, 35, 42, 43, 44, 60, 69, 74, 77, 79, 80, 83, 85, 88, 89, 102, and 143.)

Examples:

Psalm 10:1: “Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Psalm 13:1: “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Psalm 27:9: “Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger.”

Psalm 44:23–24: “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? … Why do you hide your face?”

Psalm 69:17: “Do not hide your face from your servant.”

Psalm 74:1: “Why have you rejected us forever, O God?”

Psalm 77:7–9: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever?”

Psalm 80:3: “Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.”

Psalm 88:14: “Why, LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?”

Psalm 89:46: “How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?”

Psalm 102:2: “Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress.”

1 out of every 6 Psalms, 16%, contains a moment where the writer wrestles with the sense that God's presence, attention, favor, help, or face being withdrawn.

What about King David?

What did King David experience?

King David was described as “a man after God’s own heart”.

Did he struggle in The Secret Place finding God’s presence?

David wrote 73 of the 150 Psalms.

If we look at just the Psalms written by David we see even more struggle than all of the other Psalmists.

One out of every four, or 25%, of the Psalms written by David contain a point where David wrestles with God's presence, attention, favor, help, or face being withdrawn.

Psalm 28: “Do not remain silent to me.”

Psalm 30: “When you hid your face, I was dismayed.”

Psalm 35: “Lord, how long will you look on?”

Psalm 51: “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”

Psalm 109: “Do not remain silent…..do not be far from me.”

Psalm 143: “Do not hide your face from me.”

Looking at all of these Psalms I believe it is okay for us to lament and complain.

It is okay to ask the question, “God, where are your eyes and favor?”

Questioning is part of the process of discovery………and God wants you to discover who He is!!!!!!

That is all part of the plan.

STANDING FOR THE READING OF THE WORD:

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:7–12

Pastor: This is the Word of The Lord!

Congregation Response: Thanks be to God!

Before you are seated, fistbump your neighbor and say, “ASK”

For years I only read this scripture as a provision scripture. A scripture about tangible things. Words like bread, stone, give, fish, snake, gifts all seemed like tangible items. Because of that my understanding stayed limited for years.

The point of this verse is not stuff.

The point of this verse is not that we will have "provision".

The point is asking and seeking.

We are told to ask and to seek.

When we ask something happens.

Doors are opened and good gifts are given.

Let me give you a thought to chew on:

Is it possible that God is using these dry seasons to simply test you?

Is He testing your asking?

Is He testing your seeking?

Is He testing to see if you will draw closer to Him?

Is He testing to see if you will draw away from Him and create distance between yourself and Him?

Testimony /Story:

I recall as a kid being terrified of the dark? I would build up the courage to run out of my room as fast as I could to escape the dangers of the dark to get to my parents room as fast as I could. William is terrified of the dark. When his door opens; I wake up. Quick feet down the hall. Now as a parent I am awake in bed. But I don’t say anything. Why? Because there is nothing for my son to be afraid of. There is nothing in the house that will harm him. I don’t need to calm his fear. His fear will calm when he makes his way into my presence.

God where are you?

God I am terrified?

Father, when will you rescue me?

I get wrapped up in the fear of life at times. Asking God where He is. Seeking him like William running down the hallway. Yet God is silent. I think there are times He stays silent because in the big picture there is nothing that will harm me……….and His silence and the playing out of time teaches me that lesson.

ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE BOREDOM & FEELING ATTRACTIVE

16% of ………….ALL……….. of the Psalms, including the ones David wrote, appear to struggle with finding God’s presence and favor.

25% of the Psalms written by David show a man struggling to find God’s presence and favor.

Let’s look at these stats a little differently.

David, the man after God’s own heart, is ruining the curve!!!!!

Track with me here.

I am not going to do the math for you.

I was a CPA for 25 years, I can do math!!!!!

I have already done the math so I am going to just tell you………..Trust me!!!!!!

If you look at all the Psalms, excluding the Psalms written by David, and only analyze those Psalms. 8% of those Psalms were dealing with the issue of struggling with finding God’s presence and favor.

David, the man after God’s own heart, struggled finding God’s presence and favor at a significantly greater level than the average Psalmist. 3x greater.

We have a lesson here to learn from Kind David.

David allowed the questioning and hunger for God’s presence to drive him closer to God!

If you are experiencing boredom or struggling with the feeling of not being attractive to God in The Secret Place, you are in good company!

Know this ………………………. You are not alone!

Even David felt that way………….often!

Church…………………..BE ENCOURAGED…………….You are not alone!

YOU ARE NORMAL!

With all of this information comes a very important question, the point of today.

What do you do when you get bored or feel unattractive to God?

It is not a matter of if it will come, it is a matter of when.

What do you do when you don’t feel like God is meeting you in The Secret Place?

TODAY’S SECRET OF THE SECRET PLACE: DON’T QUIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe when these feelings and thoughts came over David that his response was to seek God even more.

The only way you earn the title, “Man after God’s own heart”, is if you choose to draw closer to Father especially when the experiences seem to be dry and quiet.

Look at these responses and intentional decisions written in the Psalms by David:

Psalms 27:8: My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face Lord I will seek.

Psalm 40:1: I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 69:1-3: Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.

Do these statements sound like a quitter OR someone who has made a decision and made the effort to keep going?

How many of you have ever experienced the reality of crying out to God so much that your throat became parched? (In all honesty I don’t know if I have)

David's Psalms don't present the Secret Place as:

Desire → prayer → wonderful experience every time.

They often show:

Little felt experience → seeking → waiting → continuing → then renewed encounter with God.

CLOSING:

This morning I was sitting with the Lord and I heard a bird flying towards me. As it flew towards me it was squawking the whole way.

I noticed it.

It landed in the tree in my yard.

This bird had a different song, a song I had never heard before.

It was a new voice, a new song.

I sat and listened.

The song of this bird was not pleasing. It was horrible. It sounded terrible.

As I sat a question came to my mind; “Lord, are you wanting something different today?”

I was reminded of a scripture I read two days ago. Isaiah 30.

18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! 19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Isaiah 30:18–21

What hit me is that The Lord give the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.

Why?

Adversity and affliction teach us.

Adversity and affliction test us.

When adversity and affliction come to we draw closer to Father or do we make distance?

The danger for us in seasons of dryness and silence is when our response turns us away from God rather than being a response of drawing closer.

You will have days of dryness, lack of motivation, quiet, feeling like you are not attractive to Father.

You will have these feelings.

Rather than turning away…………cry out.

“Father, where are you?”

“Father, I need you!”

Rather than limiting your time, how about doing the opposite?

Increase your time seeking Him!

The next time these feelings come over you consider the possibility that:

Father is testing your resolve.

Father is finding out the answer to the question, “Do you really love me as much as you claim?”

Father is checking your status to His challenge found in Deuteronomy 4:29.

29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29

Church…………..BE ENCOURAGED…………….You are not alone!

YOU ARE NORMAL!

DO YOU WANT TO BE KNOWN BY GOD AS, “A SERVANT AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART”?

CAN ECC BE KNOWN AS A CHURCH IN WHICH GOD LOOKS UPON US AND SAYS, “THAT IS A GROUP OF MY BELOVED SERVANTS. THEY ARE AFTER MY HEART”!

Church I urge you.

God our Father has given you the great secret…………The Secret Place.

It has an open door that never shuts to you…………ever.

Do not allow your feelings to dictate your response.

Instead offer your bodies as living sacrifices, giving them up whole heartedly in seeking the Father.

May your seeking prove to the Father that you are His true worshipers!

Church may it be resolved in your mind, in your heart, and ultimately in your actions that nothing will keep you from The Secret Place!

Prayer Team: