Are you in a ‘desert season?’ Have you been waiting on the fulfillment of a promise past the point of all reason and human hope? Do you feel trapped in your circumstances? Are you suffering lack? Sickness? Weariness?
Do not lose heart! Stoke the embers in your heart and fan them ablaze with passion again.
Encourage yourself in The Lord.
‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’ -Ecclesiastes 3:1
Remember the Israelites and their journey out of bondage and slavery through the desert, and the battles they fought to take possession of the promised land.
If you remember, Joshua and Caleb were the only men of their generation permitted to go into the promised land after the Israelites wandered and were tested in the desert for 40 years.
2 out of a likely 2.5 million people. Not good odds!!!
‘But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his council. In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.’
-Psalm 106:13-15
I’m pondering my life and holding it up to the light of the Word this morning.
Does my life more closely resemble the spies that spread a false report? The people that accepted the false report as truth? The impatient, grumbling, idol worshipping, giving into cravings and not waiting on the council of God, Israelites?
Or is my life a life of faith and rest, like that of Joshua and Caleb, the men that believed God and had confidence that what He promised would come to pass; that they would be able to accomplish what God said they could?
How we see God, what we believe about his character, and whether or not we take him at his word, colors how we view our life and the world around us.
‘Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed…..
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’
-Hebrew 4:1-2; 15-16