Have you ever gone through a dry spell?

Or, maybe you’ve gone through an extended time of silence when it seemed like God was subtlely absent. Maybe it was something akin the inter-testamental period when the sons of Israel waited 400 years in silence for God to speak again, patiently expecting the fulfillment of the LORD’s covenantal promises, and anxiously hoping that the Ancient of Days would come forth and reign over the Kingdom of God. Have you ever felt like God Himself was putting you through a long period of deprivation?

Could it be that you are in the midst of this very time where God has deprived you explicitly of what you so desperately need. Certainly, you know there is a purpose to this divinely-imposed time of fasting, a reason why God has withheld from fulfilling His promises to you. May it be that the LORD was waiting until you finally got it, when you finally woke up from your slumber and finally realized that there is something greater and more important than that which you think you need. May it be that the Lord has sought to teach you ever so bluntly that desiring anything more than God Himself is idolatry.

And in this, we must confess our sin, repent, and return to the Lord.

I have gone through such times as that; and who knows, maybe I am still in the middle of that period of waiting and expecting.

If you are going through something like this right now or have experienced such in your past, may this be a reminder to all of us that God has spoken to us through His Son. Maybe Christ Jesus was not what you expected and did not come in the way that you had hoped. Nevertheless, be certain of this — all of your waiting, yearning, and desiring for God to manifest Himself to you in the most experiential way has already occurred. God has already spoken to us, and is speaking to us at this very moment. And He is here with us — right here, right now — working in us and through us by His Spirit, if only we would open our Bibles and hear what He would say:

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

–Hebrews 1:1-4

Maybe it’s time for us to re-learn the discipline of deprivation.

Sermon by Dr. Hershael York, Victor and Louise Lester Professor of Preaching, School of Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from Exodus 16:1-18