What If I Don't Feel An Emotional Breakthrough During the Virtual Jesus Challenge?
Key Takeaways:
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Not feeling an emotional breakthrough during the virtual Jesus challenge is a normal experience.
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Spiritual growth happens quietly beneath the surface.
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Your feelings aren’t the measure of whether God’s working in your life.
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Consistency and showing up matter more than emotional experiences.
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God uses “uneventful” seasons to build lasting fruit and transformation.
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You don’t need to force or manufacture emotions.
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Faithfulness to keep showing up is the highest form of trusting God.
I Thought This Would Be Different
It’s Day 18 of the virtual Jesus challenge.
You lace up your shoes, step outside, press play on Acts, and start walking. 🚶
You’re rocking a full schedule on low energy and still carve out precious time and energy for the Jesus challenge.
But if you’re really honest, it’s been a little anticlimactic so far. 🥺
Nothing seems to be working, and you feel the same as when you started.
Maybe you hope for a refreshing perspective on menial tasks you don’t like.
Or gentleness and patience pouring out of your speech towards your kids.
Maybe you hoped for restoration in a painful relationship.
After reading about all those breakthroughs in the reviews and in the Facebook group, you expect a WOW moment of your own!
But nothing seems to be moving.
You still hate those tasks just as much, you still struggle controlling your tongue with your kids, and that relationship still hurts. Your stress and exhaustion feel exactly the same as when you first started the Jesus challenge. 😫
If this is you, I want you to know this before we go any further:
🚨 You are not broken.
🚨 You’re not doing this wrong.
🚨 You’re definitely not alone in this.
Let’s talk about what’s going on here. 👇
Is Something Wrong With Me?
This thought is usually the first to creep in.
When it seems like everyone else gets to experience these radical, life-changing transformations, we immediately assume something’s wrong with us.
💭 “Wow, God spoke so clearly to her. What should I do to experience that?”
💭 “He had this massive breakthrough, what’s wrong with me that I haven’t?”
This is a very normal and human experience.
I’d like to gently remind you that there are thousands of people in that Facebook group, and many of them feel like you do, but they don’t post about it. This is a common experience in the Jesus virtual challenge, and I’m excited to discuss God’s intentionality in allowing that.
To spoil it just a bit, there is NOTHING wrong with you.
God does NOT waste an ounce of your sacrifice, effort, devotion. Hang in there, there’s hope (coming further in the blog!) 👇
Am I Doing It Wrong?
Our minds go here next.
🤔 “Maybe I’m not doing it right.”
🤔 “I must be too distracted."
🤔 “Maybe I need to try harder or be more disciplined.”
And you start pressuring yourself to perform better.
In that moment, we lose sight of the ENTIRE goal of this Christian walking challenge: showing up. Perfection and performance do not matter in this challenge.
There’s no perfect “way” to do the virtual Jesus challenge. Yes, some days your mind wanders. And sure, sometimes you’ll have no idea what you just listened to.
But those days still count because you showed up and met with God.
God is not sitting up in heaven grading your performance, waiting for you to “finally get it right" before He changes your life.
All He wants is your presence; unimpressive, messy, mad, crying, distracted, just as you are.
The Temptation to Give Up
If you’re discouraged with the virtual Jesus challenge, this question inevitably pops up in the back of your mind:
😕 “What’s even the point if nothing’s happening?”
😕 “Maybe this just isn’t for me.”
Because, YES, you’ve been getting up earlier than you’d like.
You’re giving time and energy when you’re already stretched thin.
You’re choosing to go walk when it would be easier to skip it and get on with your day.
Of course you question it and wonder if it’s worth it. I would too.
This is the point where a lot of people quit. They love God and they want to be close to Him, but here's the issue: they end up equating FEELINGS with SUCCESS.
Let’s talk about if that’s true or not. 👇
The Truth
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it’s worth a reminder.
⚠️ Spiritual growth is not always emotional.
And I know that’s probably not what you want to hear.
We really wish it were emotional! We want the moment, the breakthrough, the tears, the intense relief, the “Wow, God really just met me here” feeling.
But God intentionally chooses to NOT work like that sometimes.
More often than not, He works quietly, underground.
The Death, Life, and Fruit of a Seed
You don’t plant a seed and come back the next morning expecting a full-grown plant. (Although who of us doesn’t secretly peek at the dirt for a miracle the day after planting seeds? 😉)
A whole complex process of death and life must take place in the darkness of the soil before there’s any inkling of life or fruit.
This process has a very distinct order:
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FIRST, the shell of the seed breaks down to make way for new life.
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Only then can new life emerge from the shell.
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The tiny growth must still make its way up through the dark soil to the light.
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Once it’s above ground, it still requires time, nourishment, and care to produce any kind of fruit.
So if you’re not yet seeing the emotional “fruit” or breakthroughs you expected in the Jesus virtual challenge, it does NOT cancel out the valuable, necessary growth God’s overseeing underground. 🌱
Here’s the reality beneath the surface:
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Consistent time in His Word renews your mind
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He redirects your thoughts throughout the day (yes, even if you don’t notice it)
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Time in prayer softens your heart
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Your build a priceless habit of surrender and obedience
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Your body learns rest and healthy rhythms
This season is incredibly intentional and necessary for the abundance fruit God wants to bear in and through you. 🍋 Trust His process.
God Often Works Underground
We see God doing some of His most important work in “underground” seasons all throughout the Bible.
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Moses spent 40 YEARS in Midian before leading Israel out of captivity.
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Joseph sat in prison for at least two years for doing nothing wrong.
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Even though he was rightly appointed king, David waited 15 years to sit on the throne.
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Jesus Himself lived 30 quiet years before beginning His public ministry.
As western Christians, we have a habit of glorifying, celebrating and even over-focusing on visible, emotional moments. 🎉
But the long, quiet seasons of faithful, private obedience are JUST as important if not more!
👉 Like the quiet sacrifices you make for God alone that no one else sees, understands, or appreciates.
👉 The weighty meaning behind lifting your hands in worship.
👉 The daily surrender of life not going the way you expected.
👉 The humility of doing a job unseen and unappreciated.
That underground work is FAR more valuable than the big, visible changes we anxiously wait for. Because without it, there would BE NO lasting fruit.
God forges His people in the fire. We usually think of the fire as some big, hard thing. But as you know, that fire can often be the long, slow burn of unanswered questions and believing without seeing.
Friend, your feelings are NOT the measure of your transformation! 🙌
Be encouraged: wherever you are in your walk with God, He IS WORKING. He’s never limited by what you FEEL when you walk. He’s working in ways you can’t measure or even emotionally grasp in the moment.
Your Next Step of Obedience
So what do you do with all of this?
On one hand, feeling like nothing is working, and on the other hand, believing God IS working.
⚠️ You keep obeying.
Not with pressure to perform.
Not manufacturing emotional fruit.
Just quietly, faithfully showing up. This persistence to keep walking with God even when you don’t see the result is the greatest form of trust in Him.
When you signed up for the Jesus challenge, God didn’t ask you to feel something or be “successful” according to your emotions. But He does ask you to be faithful.
He will take care of the process and you can trust Him. He’s got it. You’ll see that little baby plant poke out of the ground at just the right time. 🌱 And it will yield its fruit in season.
So take a deep breath and release this heavy pressure and expectation on yourself. 🤲
Keep Your Momentum Going
If you haven’t already joined the Jesus virtual challenge OR you’re in the middle of it and want to lock in long term, sign up for the next challenge!
Designed for busy people with full schedules and low energy, this virtual Christian walking challenge helps you prioritize Jesus as #1 in your busy life.
Even if you don’t feel ready and don’t have it all figured out, the Lord is EAGER to meet you and speak to you through His Word.