I think we all go through various times one might consider a wilderness. Not to over extend an often-over-extended metaphor, but I think these wildernesses can be entire chapters in our lives, or, sometimes, just a part of a week. I know I've had even parts of a single day that felt a wilderness like for me.
What I love about the verse about (which may seem like an odd verse to "love") is the reminder of the purpose in it. Even the Israelites who wandered in the literal desert for forty years (talk about a season!) were brought to that place for a reason. Perhaps it was their own rebellion as a people that brought them to the place in which they needed saving, but truly, even then, God redeemed the time. He used it to test them, to refine them. I know that, at least for me, the idea of being tested by God isn't immediately met with a big "yay!," but in truth, I do want God's testing to come, because 1) it's the way I learn and grow and 2) it's His will working and whittling away at the dross in my life.
So, for today, especially in my few-hour "wildernesses," I am going to be grateful for a God who uses the uncomfortable predicaments into which I may lead myself. I am grateful for a to a God who takes what seems like it could have been counted as loss and restores it with intention. When I remember that it is into His hands that I must commit my journey, crossing the deserts of my life becomes much easier. Thank God for that!
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