A Dry & Barren Place!!!
Desert Experiences In Our Lives...
Ever felt like you were experiencing a season in your life where everything seems to be barren, dry and desolate? Those times when God seems so far away, and every moment of your life is just a constant struggle. When illness never seems to leave you, when work becomes a burden, when relationships darken and drift apart, when your faith seems to be getting tested by…everything.
We have all experienced these desert seasons during our lives, for some of us they go on for long periods of time, for others, they may be short seasons. The one constant within those seasons is that they are lonely places, often dark places, where we end up looking deep within ourselves - often we don’t like what we see.
Yet, desert experiences can be a time of personal spiritual, emotional and physical growth. when that might be exactly where you need to be?
(artwork by Schism)
Sometimes it is just a season of our lives where we are struggling…
Psalm 63:1 “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”
Life isn’t easy…never has been, never will be. Sometimes things outside of our control happen - like illness, diseases, unemployment etc. Or as a consequence of either our own decisions or the decisions of others - things go wrong, or take a turn for the worst. It’s a part of life and it is there for a season.
It is in these times that we need to focus on God more than we focus on our situation. I know how hard it is to do that, so I’m not saying it lightly…but we often get so self absorbed with our own situations that we take ourselves to a dark place…forgetting that God is with us all the time - whether we feel HIS presence or not. This is precisely the situation that David is describing in these verses of Psalm 63.
When we are in a place of spiritual, emotional and physical barrenness and desolation we need to seek the source of the ‘Living Water’ that is Jesus Christ. Even if all we can manage is a cry of “Help me Jesus!!!” - that is enough, and it is good enough. Jesus knows your situation, HE knows your heart, and HE knows your future - so just call out to HIM.
Sometimes it is a place of learning and placing our reliance on God…
Isaiah 41:17-18 “The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
At times, our desert experiences are more physical and economic than they are spiritual and emotional. Sometimes we experience periods of unemployment (even prolonged unemployment), or illness leaves us bedridden or unable to work as much as before - so our finances take a hit. We suffer for it, our spouses suffer for it, and if you are blessed with a family, unfortunately despite your best efforts they are impacted by events too. Whether we like it or not, these are part of life.
God doesn’t cause us to go through hard times, but he sure does use them to redirect our reliance on HIM. If we have built up a lifestyle that we enjoy and are comfortable in using our own strength, and our own skills/knowledge - then sometimes God might just use an economic downturn, or job layoffs to bring us back into submission and dependance on HIM for literally the food on the table and the roof over your head.
I can remember times of my own life when we were impoverished - and I do mean that in every sense of the word. At the time my parents were pastoring in a small country town in the 1980’s, and my dad was working a part-time job (which he then lost) - which meant very little income for the family. So, there were many days of literally having no food in the house, and my parents sending us to school with no lunch or breakfast, and they would pray for food for the family. God would hear that prayer, and there were times while my mother was picking us up from school (on the other end of town), that a farmer in the congregation would deliver a box of fresh food to our doorstep - or other times people would knock on our door with a hot meal and say “God told me to make this for you!”. Or the times when I went to school with a huge hole in my shoes and hide it from my parents and my friends at school because I was ashamed of my poverty, and I knew my parents couldn’t afford new shoes for me. Or the times when the only new clothes we got were hand-me-downs from people in the congregation.
So, I actually know what I am talking about here because I have lived it. God makes a way to bless you in the desolate places of your life. The catch is that you need to set aside your own desires and your own strength/abilities to try and fix your situation, and just let God do HIS thing in your life.
Sometimes it is a place where we seek God because the direction of our lives is changing…
Galatians 1:15-18: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.”
Paul was a religiously zealous person, who was very learned in the ways of the Old Testament. So much so that he went around arresting and murdering members of the early church all over the region. Yet, even after that after God’s hand on HIS life, Paul knew that even before he was born God was calling him into a relationship with HIM.
After Paul’s conversion to Christianity he did not go straight to the Disciples (which to us would seem strange), rather he went out into the desert area of Arabia and spent three years learning from Jesus HIMSELF.
Personally, and I have no real biblical proof - just a series of patterns throughout the Bible - that he went to Mount Horeb (which I also believe to be in current Saudi Arabia), the holy mountain where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, where Elijah went and hid in the cave.
The point is that God changed the trajectory of Paul’s life, and sent him into a desert experience for three years to unlearn what he had lived for decades, and to learn the fullness of the gospel and of things to come from Jesus HIMSELF. Paul wasn’t even searching for the presence of Jesus, in fact he was out there heading to go capture and murder some more Christians when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. God can do the same for you, especially if you are searching for HIS presence. God can change the trajectory of your life and the life of your family - you just need to be willing to learn from Jesus.
However long they last….do not despise desert experiences. They are there to help you grow and mature in your relationship with God…The discomfort and struggle you feel are the growing pains of your faith. God supernaturally provided food and water to the Hebrews during their 40 year journey through the desert.
He will provide for you too…
May God bless you in these times, especially if you are experiencing a desert season in your life. may you draw close to Jesus and learn from HIM. May you experience the provision and protection of God in the times of your lack.