“Faith that flourishes in prosperity but vanishes in hardship is really no faith at all.”
In God’s great mercies, he often places his children through long, dry seasons of desperation, also known as the “wilderness.” I’m sure you’ve been there, feeling pain and distress and not knowing what to do. It feels like you have no strength and everything around you is failing. You wake up feeling in distress and downcast, you try to hope but your emotions are just so strong. It’s like despair and hope are wrestling against each other.
Well my friends, the wilderness is God’s good design for his children. In Deuteronomy 8, Moses reminds the Israelites to not forget the Lord who brought them into the wilderness and then lead them to the promised land.
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.”
Why does God lead us to the wilderness? To HUMBLE us and to TEST OUR HEARTS to show us how committed to God we truly are if he strips everything else away. Do we truly believe that He is enough if all of our wealth strips away? or if that relationship doesn’t work out? or if we have a chronic illness? The wilderness shows us how incredibly ugly our hearts our, it shows us our idols, pride, envy, etc. that would be hidden from us during prosperity. We don’t know how much we rely on something for security unless it is stripped away from us.
But in His love he strips us from relying on anything else to show us whom we can truly rely on: Him. He causes us to hunger only to satisfy us with himself and teach us that true life is found in Him and His word, not in wealth, success, marriage, etc. He also makes sure that the wilderness, although painful and hard, does not overtake us.
He leads us through the dark valleys to humble us, discipline us, to strip us of our idols, and most importantly, to show us where true life is found, even through the pain and suffering. Take heart and fight the good fight even in the dark. The wilderness is not the end of the story.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10, NIV)
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