It’s so important to pay attention to what we say. We’re living in a time now where it is so easy to communicate what is on our minds. We have nearly limitless options in making our opinions known to the world. The world is so connected now through social media and the internet, and things move at break-neck speed. It takes little effort to shoot out a tweet or post an instagram story with words and opinions. It takes discipline and commitment to remain silent.
Whenever you step out in faith, it seems that almost immediately you will be faced with a crisis of faith. Something that will make you think you really haven't heard from God. It will cause you to question the promise. This is the moment when our trust in God is strengthened. It's the time between the promise & the fulfillment. This is where genuine faith is tested and refined.
What comes to your mind when you think of the word wilderness? Depending on where you are from, this word will mean something different to you. The basic definition of the word says, “an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.” For my Dad growing up in north Louisiana, that meant dense forest areas. For people in Colorado, that might mean the vast Rocky Mountain range. In Texas, where I live, it would mean huge areas of flat, open space.
If you’re familiar with the Bible, you will know that the great majority of the stories in the Bible take place in Israel. Early on in the story of God’s people, the Israelites, they found themselves in the wilderness before they took possession of the land that God has promised them hundreds of years before. The wilderness in Israel was a tough place to be. The Bible tells us there were over 600,000 men. So you’re looking at well over 1,000,000 people existing in a literal desert! It would have been an incredible feat of organization and engineering to get water and food for the people and their vast flocks of livestock.
This was one of my favorite shots taken in Israel. This is from the top of the fortress at Masada. Taken with Sony a6500.
If you read the story of their journey in the books of Exodus and Numbers, you’ll find out that God miraculously provided water for the people whenever they needed it and he gave them food to eat through manna and quail.
When you get to the book of Deuteronomy, Moses starts to recount all that they had been through for 40 years in the wilderness. In chapter 2, verse 7, Moses said this:
For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
I want to focus on that final statement: You have lacked nothing. Imagine that… One million people lacked nothing in the desert for 40 years! Only God could’ve made that happen.
What can we learn from this today in the modern world? For most of us, we don’t find ourselves trying to survive in a literal wilderness, but that doesn’t mean the principles can’t apply to us.
One of the words to describe a wilderness is inhospitable. Have you ever found yourself going through a period of time that you found inhospitable? Health issues, financial struggles, and strained relationships are all examples of things we go through in life. What about depression or extended times of sadness? These are things that plague our lives today. I would define those as wildernesses.
If you find yourself in a wilderness, there are two things you can hold on to as you fight through this difficult time.