When God Feels Silent: Navigating Spiritual Dryness and Complacency in Recovery
There are seasons in recovery when God feels distant, prayer feels empty, and spiritual life feels flat. The passion you once had fades. The hunger you once felt for God’s Word grows dull. Meetings, church, and spiritual disciplines can start to feel like routine instead of relationship. This experience is often called spiritual dryness—and if we’re not careful, it can quietly lead to something far more dangerous: complacency.
Spiritual dryness itself is not a sin. Many faithful believers have walked through seasons where God felt silent. David cried out, “Why, O Lord, do You stand far away? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1). The psalmist in Psalm 42 said, “My tears have been my food day and night… Where is your God?” These honest cries show that feeling distant from God is a real and common experience.
But complacency is different. Dryness says, “I don’t feel God right now.” Complacency says, “I don’t really need God right now.”
Dryness can become the doorway to deeper faith if we keep seeking God. Complacency, however, is a slow drift away from dependence, humility, and vigilance. In recovery, complacency is deadly. It whispers, “You’re fine now. You don’t need meetings as much. You don’t need to be as honest. You don’t need to guard your heart so closely.” This is exactly when old patterns begin to creep back in.
Scripture warns us soberly: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). Complacency often shows up when life starts to improve—when the crisis has passed, relationships are healing, and the chaos has quieted. The urgency that once drove us to our knees fades, and we begin to rely on ourselves again.
Jesus addressed this heart condition in Revelation 3:15–16: “You are neither cold nor hot… So, because you are lukewarm… I will spit you out of My mouth.” Lukewarm faith is comfortable, casual, and unbothered. It doesn’t fight, doesn’t seek, doesn’t hunger. In recovery, this lukewarmness can be the beginning of relapse long before any outward behavior changes.
So what do we do when God feels silent and our hearts begin to drift?
- Be honest with God about the dryness. Tell Him you feel distant. Tell Him you feel numb. He already knows. Honesty keeps the relationship real.
- Stay faithful to the basics, even when you don’t feel it. Keep showing up—meetings, church, prayer, Scripture, fellowship. Feelings may come and go, but faithfulness builds strength.
- Guard against subtle pride. When you catch yourself thinking, “I’ve got this now,” recognize it as a warning sign. Recovery is never self‑sustained; it is always grace‑sustained.
- Invite God to search your heart. Pray like David: “Search me, O God, and know my heart… and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24). Dryness can sometimes reveal areas of compromise, distraction, or misplaced priorities.
- Lean into community, not away from it. When you feel spiritually flat, you may be tempted to pull back. Instead, press in. Let others carry you in prayer and encouragement when your own fire feels dim.
Spiritual dryness is not the end of your relationship with God—it is a season. Complacency, however, is a choice. It is the slow decision to stop fighting, stop seeking, and stop depending. In recovery, that drift can cost everything.
The good news is that God is always ready to revive a weary heart. “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up… ‘I dwell… with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15). When we humble ourselves, admit our dryness, and turn back with sincerity, God is faithful to restore our hunger, our passion, and our dependence on Him.
Reflection: Have you noticed any signs of spiritual dryness or complacency in your recovery—less urgency, less dependence, less honesty, less connection? What is one step you can take today to turn back toward God with renewed humility and intentionality?