The perpetual ups and downs of our Christian walk is in many ways considered a constant throughout the bible. James 1:2 assures us that there will be ups and downs. This unending change of highs and lows has been around since the beginning of time and looks as if it will be around until the Lord comes. It is in my best theological understanding that the ups and downs are part of the process of growing your relationship with Christ.
First lets talk about the “ups,” I will save the Debby-downers for later. When you are on an “up” it feels like God is so close to you. You are positively influencing lost people with the Love of Christ on a daily basis. Life is Great! Birds are chirping. Deer are frolicking. The sun is shining. You are constantly contributing great spiritual insight to the members of your bible study and when asked to pray you consider it an honor.
The “down” period is nothing like the previous paragraph. It feels like God is nowhere to be found. It feels like everything you touch is not only falling apart, falling apart would be good at this stage, but it seems that everything is EXPLODING into oblivion. The chirping birds have been replaced by a constant nagging of cawing crows. The deer are still frolicking but have moved from open fields to your garden and are now trampling everything to death! You don’t even want to think about a bible study and when someone asks you to pray you consider jumping out of a closed window.
The “down” time is mistakenly synonymously related to being an ineffective Christian. In Genesis 37&39 we find Joseph who knows a little bit about the “down” times. It’s important to know that Joseph had done nothing wrong when his own family betrayed him. He was thrown in a hole and left for dead, sold into slavery, and then imprisoned for acting upon his morals. Joseph could have easily gave up on God and the purpose God had given him, but he decided to go another route. In Genesis 40:6 Joseph does something abnormal, he finds himself ministering to other “dejected” people. God’s favor followed Joseph wherever he resided because of his willingness to honestly serve through the UPS and DOWNS!
Dont give up on God. Get some dedication to serve God through the ups and the downs. There are lost people who are counting on you to do so!
Pastor Aaron
Faith Outside the Box 
There certainly are a lot of ups and downs in life but I’ve found the closer I get in my relationship to Christ the less I “feel” the downs. God gives us hope in the midst of the down seasons. As a younger Christian I felt I was bi-polar sometimes because of the drastic ups and downs. God has taught me how have hope even in the down times and things have balanced out a bit.
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound… -Phil 4:12
Great post btw. I look forward to reading more. 🙂