A few years ago, I was in prayer, thanking God for taking me through a challenging season of life. While doing this, I realized that in times of significant personal turmoil, it isn’t odd for the same time to be spiritually enriching. I’ve been reflecting on that idea since then.

One day, I made a big map of all the high times and low times in life, and then started mapping spiritual seasons on top of it. I discovered that in several instances, a difficult patch of life had been preceded by a time of great spiritual depth. I’ve preached on this and referred to the idea as our “spiritual gas tank." During that season, I often drew from this faithfulness reserve.

Jerry Bridges, in his book on the fruits of the Spirit, writes this…

Growth in godly character not only is progressive and always unfinished, it is absolutely necessary for spiritual survival. If we are not growing in godly character, we are regressing; in the spiritual life we never stand still.

Faithfulness and trust are foundational elements in biblical theology.

We aren’t self-generating faithfulness.

Barth, in his work on the Epistle to the Romans, talks about how faithfulness is a primary attribute of the Father, and our being faithful back is always a response. God is always faithful! We don't have faithfulness as an originating action.

Trust also does a supernatural work within us. It’s one of the ways we participate in the Kingdom, believing and choosing for the world of God to be a controlling dynamic in our own personal lives.

So onto that faithfulness reserve.

Sometimes life is normal. Things are going fine, and we have a level of faith appropriate to the way we are living in the world. This is good, but we can slip out of faithfulness in our normal state. We become convinced that the good things we are experiencing are from our own work. It puts us into a great moral quandary if it goes unchecked.

Faithfulness is never a neutral practice.

Focusing on pursuing the presence of God during normal seasons is important. Recognize that this is a moment where we could be tempted to fall into self-sufficiency.

What about those tough seasons

When life gets tough, we as Christians look at things with spiritual eyes. In those moments, we often need to rely heavily on God's faithfulness. We have to intentionally activate faithfulness in our lives.

I’ve written before about the idea of “refuge” as one of the ways we experience God.

When we find ourselves in hard times we seek refuge in activating faithfulness. We cry out to God, trusting in him.

But sometimes this still isn’t enough. And to “take refuge” without any prior action of refuging can be difficult. When we find ourselves in a tough spot, it is easy to become overwhelmed and think the problems we are facing are larger than what God can handle.

When I was pastoring full-time, I had a phrase that was part of our core values at my church.

“God’s vision for this world is larger than our vision for this world.”

If we haven’t been activating faithfulness when things are good, we won’t have a reserve of faithfulness to help us through the tough stuff. We will be spiritually deficient. This doesn’t mean God can’t work, but it will be significantly harder for us to take refuge due to our own blindness. We find ourselves in a moment where the troubles of the world are larger than our view of God.

Our spiritual reserves are running on fumes.

The same concept goes for when life is great.

A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about what it means to find the same level of spiritual power and refuge when life is awesome. It’s tough to read those refuge passages in Psalms when the bank account is full, the truck is running perfectly, and we have a brisket in the smoker on Saturday.

I’ve been battling with the idea in my journal this month.

“Seek the things above.”

That is the action.

What I am beginning to realize is that the good times in life are the perfect time to be sharpening our sanctification. Prayerfully investigating those hidden spaces in life where we might not have invited Jesus in yet. Finding those anti-kingdom places we still hold on to. We take this season to press further into holiness.

Another one of my favorite subjects comes in here.

Thankfulness.

When things are great, it’s the perfect time to be extra thankful. I’ve known plenty of days lately where I find myself extremely thankful. Taking the time while driving to turn off the radio and tell God all the things I’m blessed by now. To keep a list of people, situations, and other examples of thankfulness each day during morning prayer.

We can also not practice refuging (yes, I made up this word and use it often) by being faithful ourselves. Asking God for clarity and the chance to be obedient. Being an intentionally gracious person in the midst of less-than-graceful situations. Always coming back in prayer at the end of the day to reckon our decisions and actions. This is the time to build up stories of gratitude and thankfulness. To walk through past seasons recognizing where God has been active, but also confessing those times when our love DIDN’T remain steadfast.

So, let me leave you with this question.

Where is your faithfulness tank right now? Is it full? Or maybe, you are in a situation where the light is one and you feel like you might be running out.

The good news is that we have a faithful God. Through Jesus Christ, we can connect with the Father and add more fuel to our spiritual tank.

Chad