God in the desert of life

Jesus in the desert

God occasionally causes hardships to come into our lives and paths to test us! We learn and grow in our Christian walks in part because of these testing! The end goal is for us to develop our relationship with Him and our DEPENDENCE on Him.

What did God the Father do with Jesus when He said, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased?" about Jesus? He led Him into the desert!
After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. (Matthew 3:16-17 NLT)
Immediately after His baptism, Jesus is led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing for forty days and forty nights.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. (Matthew 4:1-2 NLT)
What did Jesus do in the desert, He relied on His Father and was fully dependent on Him. He also used His knowledge of scripture to overcome the temptations of the devil.

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus. (Matthew 4:11 NLT)

When we are in the deserts of life, amid storms or darkness, we normally follow a pattern of the three D's. First, we are in DENIAL, full of optimism but unable to confront reality.

DETERMINATION is the second D. We are determined to solve the problem on our own and not to surrender our wills or conditions to God. We desire to rule over our own territory!

Then we go into DESPAIR. At this point, we can either give up and lay down and die, or we can surrender our condition completely to the Father and be completely DEPENDENT AND DESPERATE for HIS answer and provision! He alone has the power to restore, comfort, and answer our prayers.


The Children of Israel in the Desert


In the Exodus story, God led his people to a campsite in the desert with no water.
 
At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin (The geographical name Sin is related to Sinai and should not be confused with the English word sin.) and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. (Exodus 17:1-2 NLT)

This was God's plan. He led them there by a pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night right into the desert with no water.

But in your great mercy you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed them the way through the night. (Nehemiah 9:19 NLT)
Sadly, God's people did not believe that God's providence was good, but rather charged Moses and God with having evil intentions.
But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3 NLT)

But God in His faithfulness to undeserving people, gave them water from a rock.

You in the desert


God sometimes brings us to places where there is no water. As far as the eye can see, it's wilderness in every direction, and our situation is doomed. There is no way out. Understand that you are not there by accident. The Lord has predetermined your paths. Trust Him, turn to Him, and don't doubt his goodness and faithfulness even in the desert.

God desires a close relationship with us so much that He will let us experience extreme hunger and thirst in the desert to the point of giving up. Then, we can decide whether to turn toward Him or away from Him.

May we learn to live in the calm, "waiting" state where the Holy Spirit works and guides our hearts. Where we choose to fully depend on God rather than strive and maneuver on our own. God works for those who wait on Him.

For since the world began,
no ear has heard
and no eye has seen a God like you,
who works for those who wait for him! (Isaiah 64:4 NLT)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is my purpose for life?

Image
What is Your Purpose in Life? Are you excited about your life? Do you ever feel like you're just going through the motions, without any real purpose or direction? If so, you're not alone. Many people feel this way at some point in their lives. But the good news is that it's never too late to find your purpose. If things in your life were to change for the worse - say you lost your health, your loved ones, your possessions, your job - literally have the rug pulled out from under you, would your life still have meaning and purpose? Do you feel that there is more to life than what the world has to offer? God's Purpose for our life Our lives are not meaningless! People typically look for life's purpose in things like money, love, relationships, careers, charity, and religion. And their lives are consumed by a longing for material things that they do have have. However, unless we are deeply connected with our Creator, there will always be an emptiness in our souls. This
Read more

The Empty Desire for Things

Image
Chasing After Things One of our deepest desires as humans is to live a meaningful and fulfilled life. We are constantly on the lookout for things that will bring us fulfillment, contentment and happiness. We long for the peace and joy that come with material possessions, successful careers, beautiful bodies, higher levels of education, popularity and recognition, self-advancement, sex, pleasure, and relationships. When we obtain these things, we often feel excited for a short period of time, but then we feel empty, and the cycle begins again, and we seek the next best thing. None of these things can completely satisfy our hearts' hunger. We all want to be happy, but we can end up wasting years pursuing things that don't bring lasting happiness.  "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Ecclesiastics 1:14 How many people are happy because they have a lot of money? Are they not up all night trying t
Read more

Inner Strength for every situation

Image
  Inner Strength in every situation We will all experience some form of suffering in this life. The hope for Christians is that we will be helped and strengthened to survive by the Holy Spirit. For those who are in Christ, heartache, suffering, and even death are all temporary. "In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation." ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:10 God promises to restore us, support us and strengthen us. "I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." Philippians 4:12-13  The verses above were written by Paul in reference to his time in prison for preaching the word of God. God provided him the resilience an
Read more