ThroughSample

The wilderness.

Bleak and inhospitable, it’s that physical and spiritual wasteland into which many of us are forced at some time in our lives.

It may be the diagnosis of a dread disease or the loss of a job. Some will feel suffocated by darkness because of the death of a family member or close friend, or the crippling effects of an addiction, whether to alcohol, drugs, or pornography. Sometimes the action which leads one into the wilderness is self-inflicted, but many times it isn’t. Virtually always, it’s a sudden, crippling, and confusing descent into the desert place.

Most people will experience such times of drought, darkness, or despair in their lives, and no story is the same as another. You may be confused, grief-stricken, angry, or overwhelmed. Perhaps even all of these, as they come at you in waves throughout the day. Emotions and feelings are powerful, and they have a way of clouding our thoughts and misdirecting our paths.

Hopefully, as you work through the devotions over the next 21 days, some of that fog might dissipate, and faith will start to shine brighter than fear. Allow God’s spirit to guide and lead you as you reflect on what he says. He longs to be your strength and to direct you through the darkness. He waits for you to press into him and to call on his name.

A desert may look uniformly empty and barren, its harshness no place for life, the stark dunes baked dry. But delicate flowers still emerge after the infrequent rains. Scratch under the surface and there’s hope waiting to spring up. Walk far enough, and an oasis proves to be no mirage but a place to drink deeply.

We’re told to “seek his face”. There’s no better place to do it than as we walk with him through the wilderness. If hope seems fragile and your future bleak, what do you have to lose but to take God at his word?