Awhile back, we had some friends over for Shabbat, which is basically a big party every Friday night. We light candles and enjoy a beautiful meal, including homemade challah and wine, to begin our day of rest. This all celebrates God’s creation of everything we know – and all the wonders we have yet to discover – in six days and then, on the seventh day, He rested.

For these weekly celebrations, we often invite friends to join us, as we play games or dance in the foyer… especially when my dad visits! On this particular night, we played Nerts, one of my favorite card games. As we dealt the cards for our next round, Mariana (an amazingly-talented young woman, who works on our Destiny Global team) said something that caught my attention. I don’t remember how it even came up, but she mentioned how she misses the Wednesday night radio shows we used to do.

She lived in Finland at the time, so she would wake up at 3 AM to listen to the show. Although we still broadcast TV/radio shows, I asked Mariana why she misses those shows in particular. She talked about how much she loved them, because she got so much out of every single one.

I turned to her and said, “Mariana, you were hungrier then. That’s why you miss it. You don’t miss the shows; you miss the hunger. You have to fight to keep that hunger, in the good times and the bad.”

As the conversation continued, I could literally see the realization hit her.

I’ve seen this happen so many times before. In the beginning, we are hungry and desperate. We wake up in the middle of the night, get up early, spend hours and hours seeking God. We just want to be with Him. We put aside our own needs and wants, just to spend more time with Him.

But as time goes on, our desperation decreases and our hunger virtually disappears.

You see, a relationship with our Father is all about the pursuit. Do we pursue Him… seek Him… follow Him? Instead, most of us pursue comfort, pursue convenience, pursue what’s easy, pursue what’s right within our grasp.

This pursuit must be relentless, regardless of what may be happening in our day-to-day lives. This includes the different seasons in our lives…. especially, seasons of abundant blessings. Everything is going well, every need is met and we are generally satisfied. These seasons may seem like happy, carefree, easy, fruitful times. But they hold danger, as well, because it’s so easy to quit pursuing God in these seasons. When all of our needs are met, we don’t “need” God. (Or, so we think…) We’re not hungry anymore, because we have everything we “need.”

But those seasons of plenty will surely be followed by ones in the desert, as we begin to get hungry and cry out to Him. When the wellsprings run dry, we’re hurting and lost – without any answers. Then we seek God. We even resort to begging or bargaining with Him.

We are quick to neglect Him in the good times, and use Him in the bad times. You see, for years I only pursued God when I needed something. I manipulated and used Him, because I just wanted to get something from Him.

We do this so often. Instead of committing ourselves to Him as His bride, and truly being one with Him, we use Him to satisfy us, when we find ourselves in an unsatisfying place.

I had to train myself to pursue Him daily, whether I was in a dry, desolate place or a fruitful, abundant place. Then, when your prayers have been answered, you must fight to maintain your hunger through those blessed, fulfilled times. Unfortunately, once He answers your prayers, you cease pursuing Him with the same desperation, hunger and desire for intimacy, yearning to hear Him, feel Him, be locked in His presence.

The dry season will always come. It’s not a matter of if… it’s when!

Sometimes you hit a dry spell because things are hard, and that’s just part of life. But sometimes you enter that desert because you’ve been blessed. Let me explain… barren periods always follow blessing. Look at a garden. What follows the harvest? Death. Nothing grows. It’s dry, empty, lifeless. That’s how life works. There are seasons of fruitfulness and seasons of infertility.

We forget to pursue Him during seasons of blessing, which makes our winter so much more dry and crippling and painful. But, if you pursue Him in both good times and bad, you set yourself up for blessings… even in the driest of times.

In fact, some of my favorite times with Him have been during my dry seasons… only because I learned to focus on pursuing Him in my blessed seasons.

So, I want to encourage you today. If you are in a blessed season right now, press into Him. Seek him. Follow Him! Do not stop pursuing Him just because you don’t necessarily need anything from Him at the moment. Pursue Him because you want to build a relationship with your Father.

If you are in a dry season, keep seeking Him! Keep drawing closer. It’s critical to learn how to navigate these seasons, so you can continue growing, moving forward and preparing for what’s ahead.

I would love to know your thoughts about The Daily Fix today. Did it help? What season are you in? Have you fallen into the same pattern I did, only seeking God when you need something instead of seeking Him to build a closer relationship? Please let me know in the comments below!

Then, be sure to tune in for our weekly Spiritual Equipping episode of The Dani Johnson Show today for more biblical insights and inspiration. You can find the show on your TV and radio and please remember you can always stream today’s show right here on our website.

In great faith,

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