Where we are right now is the plan and purpose of God for our lives. If we are serving God then our current location and our current relationships are exactly where and how God intends to prosper us. When all is going well and we see success in our lives then we find it easy to accept that this is the plan of God for us. It is much harder to accept that at times, God leads us into a desert.
Let me take a moment to explain what a desert is. A desert is a place of great hardship. It is a place of intense heat and great exertion. The desert is a place of increasing thirst due to the heat. The desert is the place where anything that lives must dig deep to survive. The desert is a place of solitude. The desert is a place of extremes. The desert is a place of danger and a place of beauty. The desert is a place where excess is cut away and only what is needed remains.
Our spiritual deserts include these aspects. We may find ourselves in life in circumstances that are very hard. Perhaps there is a medical desert and our lives are filled with physical pain and hardship as well as emotional uncertainty. Perhaps it is a financial desert where we find it very difficult to provide for our daily needs. Perhaps in our challenges we find ourselves lonely because we alone are going through the struggle.
In our hardship we find that our thirst for answers from God increases. In the desert of life, we find that our roots in God will grow deeper and strong to survive. In our desert with God we find we are alone with God and God Himself is cutting away the excess.
How we respond to the desert and to God while in the desert will determine our outcome in the desert. Our attitudes will determine our outcomes!
There were those who murmered and complained in the desert. The fire of God only become more intense. “Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.” (Numbers 11:1, NIV84)
The desert is a place of intimacy. It is a place where hunger and thirst for God alone can be formed. The desert is a place where God brings us to teach us. “Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”” (Isaiah 29:24, NIV84)
When we become open hearted to God in the desert, God is then able to change the desert. The desert has always been God’s plan of success! “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.” (Psalm 107:35–36, NIV84) our current desert and wasteland is destined to become the place of your prosperity. Do not run from the desert!
When you embrace the desert, God’s promise stands firm. “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 107:37–38, NIV84)
“Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.” (Psalm 107:43, NIV84)
