In the dark night of the soul, God is providing a reflection into our own hearts. When we take away God, what are we left with? Our idols. The sins and treasures we never truly cleansed ourselves of are still locked deep within our hearts. Perhaps it was because we never had the power to do so before the Holy Spirit. And yet, they didn't move out just because the Spirit moved in. We kept them in the basement of our hearts, saving them just in case we needed them.
God is not pulling away in these dark nights. He is simply stepping out of the way so we can see ourselves clearly; so we can see all the jagged pieces in our heart that don't belong to God. God knows our weaknesses better than we do. In the midst of times of consolation - the highest, most joyful parts of our relationship with God - we may fail to understand what our weaknesses are, so God must take away our infatuation for a time, in order to save us from our own obliviousness.
There are three signs for the dark night of the soul:
1 - You can't focus on spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading or prayer. Your mind is in a constant state of restlessness.
2 - You won't want to do anything spiritual, and when you actually get around to doing something spiritual you feel guilty doing it because you don't feel anything.
3 - Both situations 1 + 2 give you spiritual anxiety.
The temptation during these dark nights is to try harder. We want to try and generate consolation by following more disciplines of prayer and Bible reading. After all, it was our disciplines that gave us the gift of consolation in the first place, right? Actually, no. Our disciplines were for our benefit, but the consolation was a gift from God.
And as Dr. Coe said well, "Do you want the pleasure of your relationship with God, or do you want a real relationship with God?"
It should be noted, however, that a dark night, however, is not to be confused with depression. There is a difference between being in spiritual desolation and being depressed. A person experiencing a dark night of the soul will cease to find joy in spiritual activities. A depressed individual will cease to find joy in any activity at all.
A person experiencing spiritual desolation may not be experiencing depression, however, these two can start to mingle together if they are left unattended. The dark night of the soul has to be addressed faithfully and honestly to prevent tragic results.
So how do we respond to this dark night of the soul?
YOU ARE READING
Dark Night of the Soul: A Term Paper
Não FicçãoWhy does God feel so distant? Why do we want to do good, but end up doing evil? In this term paper, I will be summarizing the teachings of Dr. John Coe on human morality, what it means to become "new" in Christ, and why God feels like He is far from...
