Sometimes when we are in a hard place with challenges and difficulties, all we want to do is run to someplace easier. Our spiritual deserts, our times of testing are the places God wants to transform into places of blessing. When we run to somewhere more comfortable, we may feel better for a short while as we drink from the wells of others, but we still will find the same challenges await our lives.
It is always ok to find encouragement and refreshing from other Christians. However, we must remember that these wells of their lives were created by allowing God to do His work in the desert and when the season was right God transformed their desert into a well.
God tells us to stay put. “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.” (Proverbs 5:15, NIV84) And yet staying put when we are in our desert is the most difficult thing to do. We look around for something to refresh our hearts and do not see anything and so we run off somewhere else to drink.
I see this often in Christians. Some people wander from conference to conference or from teacher to teacher. For a season they speak of how awesome this teaching was or that conference and yet they never seem to mature. These Christians fail to understand that many times maturity comes from overcoming and drawing close to God in the deserts of our lives.
The things and places in our lives that seem the most dead are the very places that God desires to transform into a place of blessing and abundance. Your desert wasteland surrendered to God is destined to become a well of living water that will refresh you and others. “He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs;” (Psalm 107:35, NIV84)
Wanting to run from our desert speaks of unbelief. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19, NIV84) God Himself asks us why we do not perceive what He wants to do in the desert. God promises that a way will always be made for us in the desert if we will just believe His promises.
The desert many times is the birthplace of destiny. Death leads to resurrection. The seed must die before the plant can grow. Our enduring the desert season learning and trusting God builds faith and character. We grow strong when we overcome the challenges of the desert. When we endure our desert seasons of life with trust, hope and faith in God, we create room for the desert to become a source of life. “As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.” (Psalm 84:6–7, NIV84) “Baca” means weeping. When we go through the seasons of dryness and tears, when there seems to be no hope and yet we continue our hope in God, we become empowered to transform that dead and dry place into a place of life and blessing.
This is God’s desire. He will teach us in the desert. And then, God will transform the desert into the place of destiny and our prosperity. “He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest; he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish.” (Psalm 107:35–38, NIV84)
Your desert is the place where God wants you to grow and become fruitful. Your desert is the place the God desires to bring abundance. Your desert is the place where restoration begins and you can build a spiritual heritage where others will learn about the goodness of God. “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” (Isaiah 58:11–12, NIV84)
When we overcome the test of faith in the desert, we open the door for the glory of God. “I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:18–20, NIV84)
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
