Everyone on the spiritual path has found that it happens occasionally in the early years, and not often then, that he suddenly finds himself almost or quite unable to pray. Often it seems that he cannot get any sense of contact with God. This naturally depresses him and sometimes leads to greater fear and almost to despair.
Now, these severe reactions are not necessary, once you know that everyone goes through them.
This trouble is caused by overdoing. You have been praying too long or too hard, or you have been giving too much time to spiritual work exclusively, instead of having other interests in your life too. It is really a condition of staleness and psychological congestion. The medieval mystics called these times “seasons of dryness” and suffered severely because they believed them to be sinful.
The remedy is not to struggle, but to know that this dryness will surely pass, and your spiritual joy return. If you cannot pray, do not try, but think, “God is so good that I need not pray; he will take care of me anyway.” (Of course, this itself is a wonderful prayer.) On a long motor tour, it sometimes happens that you come upon a piece of rough, bad road. For hundreds of miles the going has been perfect, but now you are shaken and bumped badly, but you do not worry, because you know for certain that it will only last for a few miles. Indeed, there is probably a notice saying “Pavement ahead.”
…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning (Psalms 30:5)
We all face times when our path is seems so rocky that we will surely fall. And sometimes we can face such great odds, that it seems like God has abandoned us. We can even be angry at God, or feel so alienated spiritually that we can’t go to him in prayer.
Yet God tells us time and again that he will never forsake us. Jesus said “even the faith of a mustard seed”, can move mountains. Now a wise man once said that “Jesus is God and ever true to his promise, or he is nothing at all.” So, when we are on that rough road, and all our senses conspire against our faith, let us follow Joshua’s admonition to, “be strong and of a good courage…turn neither to the left or the right, but be ye strong and of a good courage”.
If we stay on God’s path, stay strong and refuse to accept nothing other than God’s promise to send everything we need for our best good, we will find the blessings hidden in our pain. We will rise above that which feeds our doubt and and fear, and we will return to the Eden God created for us.
In the words of a favorite balladeer; “When the road is dark, and you can no longer see. Let my love throw a spark, and have a little faith in me” , Delbert McClinton.
Expecting joy,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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