Wisdom is found in the wilderness

 

Why does life have to be so hard? Why do some people seem to get all the breaks and never seem to go through the tough times that you fight through regularly just hoping to survive and catch a breath before the next one hits? Why can’t God make life easier for us? Doesn’t He love us? What kind of God would allow bad things to happen to good people? Why is it necessary that we go through the wilderness seasons?

All good questions. Let’s dig into His Word, find truth, and get some answers.

 

Why does life have to be so hard?

Some come out of the womb into a hard life, while others are born into a good environment. It doesn’t really matter what your circumstances are when you are born, the fact is we are all born into a broken and fallen world as sinners that need a Savior. (Romans 3:23, John 3:3)

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1John 1:8

When studying scripture in the Holy Bible, we learn that life isn’t supposed to be easy. In fact, Jesus warns us that it will be hard because we live in a sinful world that is broken and doomed to fade away in the end when Jesus returns with the New Heaven and earth.  He promises in His Word that His followers will enjoy a sin-free, happy, disease-free earth when Jesus comes back for us. We can have hope in His promises and have something to look forward to if we will cling to Him and endure this world til He returns for us. A reminder and a reason to stay strong and lean on Him during your life in this ever-spiraling chaotic world.

Jesus encourages us to stay strong, 

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Matthew 5:11

“And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 10:22

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18

His promises give us hope. They tell us what to expect and that when we cling to Him and His promises, we can get through anything that comes our way because He is with us and fighting for us.

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” Isaiah 41:10, 13

 

Why do some people seem to get all the breaks?

The truth is, no one is exempt from pain and struggle. Those who look like they have it all together are usually the most miserable people in the world. The may have power, success, “friends,” fame, money, and all the things that money can buy, but in most cases, not all, they have sacrificed their souls to get the things of this world.

By sacrificing your soul, I am referring to those that give up a relationship with God to have immediate gratification from the world.  Scripture says that you can’t serve God and the world. Many try to do both, some don’t; they don’t care. They don’t want God to disrupt their plans or their fun. Those who try to serve both will eventually fail miserably at trying to look like they have it all together at church, at work, and around their “friends.” They can only keep up the facade for so long before they have to make a choice.  Give it all up for God, or give up on God to follow the world? The is only one path to finding love and happiness; following Jesus.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24

For those who choose to follow the world and all it has to offer to keep up appearances of success and to be included by others, sadly will eventually find themselves alone in a pit of despair. They will either turn to God for help and repent, or they will get mad at God and blame Him for their troubles.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2

 

Why can’t God make life easier for us?

First of all, let’s clear something up. God is NOT a genie in a bottle that grants all your wishes. He is not here to make you prosper and have all the things of this world that you desire. To dispel another myth/lie, God is NOT a mean God either. God is love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1John 4:7-8, 16

While God and Jesus never promised us that life on this earth would be easy, they both spoke of the abundant love they have for us. God promised to always be with us. He doesn’t leave us, we leave Him. We don’t want Him interfering in our life, but we want Him there if we have a need. It hurts God when we don’t choose to include Him in our everyday life, in all our decisions and thoughts. He is our Father and we can talk to Him about everything.

His plan isn’t about making life easy for us. He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to choose Him over the world. The world is full of sin, and its pleasures are only temporary. He wants to bless us and offer us a life of blessings in eternity with Him. He does bless His followers in this life, but the real blessings come when we are in Heaven with Him and when we spend eternity with Him in the new Heaven and new earth to come.

So rather than expect this life to be easy, choose Him over the world. Allow Him to be in your daily life and teach you and prepare you for your purpose and for what is to come. He loves you more than you know.

 

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Let’s find the answer to that question by visiting the story of Job. I encourage you to study the story yourself, but I will hit the highlights. Job was a man of God that loved and served Him and was very blessed by God for His faithfulness. His success and prosperity did not deter him from keeping God first in His life. God saw Job as righteous.

Scripture says that Satan had a conversation with God, and Satan said that the only reason Job served God was because He blessed Him. He bet God that if Job lost everything that he would no longer serve God. Job was known by God, He knew that Job loved Him wholeheartedly. God then gave Satan permission to take everything away from Job, except for his life. He was confident in Job’s faith and dedication. Job was devastated by his losses and was confident that he had not sinned and caused this to happen. His friends tried to tell him that he was at fault. Job eventually has a talk with God about it but never doubts God’s love for him. After the test and conversation with God, He blesses Job’s faith double what he previously had, and lost.

The only way that Satan was able to take away all that Job had was by permission from God. Nothing can happen to us that God doesn’t allow. When bad things happen to good people, or we find ourselves in wilderness seasons, have faith, and trust that God is still with you, and has a reason for these tough seasons in our life. God is working His plan for you that you cannot see. Trust Him. He is doing what is best for you.

Rather than ask Him to get you out of the difficult season, ask Him what He is trying to teach you through it.  There are always blessings waiting for us on the other side of the testing, but we must go through the testing completely. We can’t go around it, we must go through it to learn. God teaches those He loves, and stretches our faith so that He can take us to the next level of our relationship with Him, and deeper in our walk and purpose for Him.

 

Wisdom in the wilderness

“But I don’t want to go through the wilderness! Why do I have to go through bad times? I will be good, I promise.”  How many times have you thought or said that to God? I used to do that until I learned that those were the moments that drew me closer to Him. It is in the wilderness moments when you get the opportunity to be alone with God and hear His voice so clearly. The very moments when you can feel His love the strongest. Once you see, and experience that depth of His love, you don’t want to lose it.

It’s in the wilderness seasons that God is able to stretch your faith and teach you new things that you need as you walk deeper in relationship with Him. Once you receive this revelation knowledge, you learn not to dread these teaching moments but look forward to spending time with God and learning something new. God created you to crave a love that only He can fill. You have a choice to allow Him to love you. Once you experience that level of love that you have been starving for, you will be transformed and never the same again.

Let’s look at some great examples of wilderness moments that others experienced, and learn from them.

 

Those who have gone through the wilderness before us

• In the Holy Bible, the first to experience a wilderness season was Adam and Eve when they were placed outside of the Garden of Eden. They struggled to adjust to where God had placed them but He never left them; He stayed with them and taught and provided for them. In spite of their sin, He loved them and provided what they needed to live a full life on this earth. The Lord disciplines those He loves. (Hebrews 12:6)

• Lot was in the wilderness when Abram rescued him.
• Hagar was in the wilderness when God met her there and promised to take care of she and her son. God was with her and the boy.
• Joseph was thrown into a pit in the wilderness by his brothers until he was sold to Gypsies heading to Egypt to fulfill the plan God created Him for that was revealed in his dreams years earlier.

• Then there was Moses who was born a Hebrew, raised as a son of the Pharoah as an Egyptian for forty years until he murdered an Egyptian guard for abusing a Hebrew and then escaped to the desert for forty years. All those years in the wilderness running from his sin and his God. God taught him many things during that time and then one day at God’s appointed time, He called to him from a burning bush. It was then that God said Moses was ready to step up and serve His anointed purpose for God, to deliver the Israelites from Egypt and slavery. He was eighty years old before God said he was ready to come out of the desert and serve God in this way.

• Of course there were the Israelites that God had Moses deliver from Egypt; they wandered in the desert for forty years. They could have gone straight into the Promised Land from Egypt in just a few days, but God knew they weren’t ready for the enormity of that gift. God needed to work on their hearts and their ingrained beliefs; stretch their faith and teach them His ways as their new God.

• David was anointed the next King of Israel when he was a boy serving as a shepherd for his father in the wilderness. Then he spent many years in the wilderness running from King Saul after killing Goliath, because King Saul sought his life out of jealousy. God kept him in the wilderness all those years because he wasn’t ready to be king. There was still much to learn and his faith had to be tested.

• Elijah was in the wilderness running from Jezebel when God met him in 1 Kings 19, to teach him, stretch his faith, and renew his strength to keep serving God.

• John the Baptist had a special calling on His life. Early on he was called to live in the wilderness as God prepared him for his calling to baptist in the name of the Lord and prepare the way for Jesus to come into ministry. Luke 1:80

• After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He was lead by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by the devil before He began His ministry. One of the many reasons Jesus had to go through the wilderness was to relate to humans going through the same thing. He learned, He was tempted, and He set an example for us of what to do when we are in the wilderness seasons; to pray and stand on God’s Holy Word. It is our shield and strength. (Psalms 28:7)

Every wildness season is meant to prepare you for something greater that God has in store for you on the other side; your Promised Land. These seasons also cause you to cling to Him. When God sends us into our wilderness moments it’s to stretch us, teach us and prepare us for what is next in our lives. Our Heavenly Father will always bless us with wisdom in the wilderness, if only we will humble ourselves before Him and choose to wholeheartedly allow Him into our hearts.

 

The blessings in the wilderness

Let’s look at the Israelites story within the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and look at just a few examples of how God blessed them while they were in the wilderness with Him.

God gave the Israelites and sojourners:

• Water from rocks
• Manna from Heaven everyday to eat
• Light from Heaven just for them to see during the night
• Protection from their enemies and the elements
• He gave His promises to Moses for them to pass down
• Their clothes and shoes never wore out
• Atonement for their sins through sacrifice

God is such a good, good Father who loves us so much and gives us His peace, presence, provision and protection anew everyday; His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

His Word says He is always with us. (Matthew 28:20) He is the only living God and cannot lie. (Numbers 23:19) He does not walk away from us, we walk away from Him. Whatever you are going through today, know that He IS with you! Turn to Him, cling to Him, and ask for His forgiveness and help.

There is NO sin that He won’t forgive. Ask Him to help you with the hardest task in the world; to help you forgive yourself. Once you forgive yourself, it’s easier to hear God speak and show you His love for you. Then you can listen well and let Him prepare you for what is next.

 

Where is YOUR Promised Land?

Life can be so challenging. You learn early on that regular wilderness moments are part of the growing and learning process in life. For most people, it takes a lifetime to realize that wilderness moments are a good thing. They prepare you for what God has next for you.

Think about it: you don’t go onto the football field without practicing first. You don’t go onto the battlefield before learning how to shoot. Preparation is key. God has shown us over and over in His Word in the First Testament that He gives you the promise early on in life but it’s much later in life before He calls you into play for that calling and purpose He created you for. He is never early and never late; He is an on-time God; His timing is perfect. Trust His process. He sees the big picture and knows what is best for you.

Every wilderness has a “promised land” on the other side. The wilderness IS THE WAY to the “promised land.” You can’t go around, over, or under, you have to go through it. When you realize that the wilderness is necessary to get to where you find God’s blessings on the other side, you learn not to dread them, but to welcome them.

For the Israelites, God used the wilderness season to get “the Egypt out of the Hebrews.” He had to break off that slavery mindset and retrain them to know and serve Him. He gave them a number of opportunities to test their faith during that forty year period. There were valuable lessons taught; some learned, some ignored. There were consequences for ignoring, and blessings for obeying. Those who obeyed and trusted God, saw the Promised Land in that story. Many never arrived for lack of faith and lack of obedience. Which one will you be?

“Adonai will always guide you; he will satisfy your needs in the desert, he will renew the strength in your limbs; so that you will be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.” Isaiah 58:11

 

Reflection on the Israelites story in the Torah

• The Hebrews witness many miracles in their wilderness season.
• God promised blessings to those who followed Him and obeyed His commands.
• In spite of the miracles, there were so many that didn’t want to do it God’s way.
• They wanted to make the decisions; they wanted to do it their way.
• It wasn’t everyone rebelling against God, there was a remnant that obeyed and kept the faith.
• The rebellious ones complained constantly about the conditions of their wilderness.
• They weren’t interested in learning from God or being loved by Him, they wanted Him to give them everything they thought they wanted; and complained when He didn’t.
• They kept saying that they would have been better off to stay in slavery in horrible conditions than to be subjected to God stretching their faith as He taught them His ways.
• God was not going to send them back to Egypt as they requested, what they got for their rebellion was much worse; they died in the desert and never saw the Promised Land that was God’s gift to them. A land flowing with milk and honey. (Numbers 14:16)

“Then the LORD said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.” Numbers 14:20-23

(Nehemiah 9 recounts the story as well)

Learn to appreciate God’s process for preparing you for your Promised Land.

 

Follow Him in your wilderness

Be encouraged in your wilderness that you are not alone but being carried by your Heavenly Father that loves and adores you and wants to spend eternity with you. His discipline is not punishment, rather it’s one of His ways of showing His love for you.

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:6,11

“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:11-12

“Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Proverbs 13:24

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:19

 

Follow Him. Trust Him. You will be rewarded.

“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.“ Jeremiah 2:2

“So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” Ezekiel 20:10-12

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:14

 

Looking for The Blessed Hope

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:11-14

 

Are you ready?

Not sure if your heart is right with Jesus? Take a moment to ensure it is. Your eternity depends on it, and time is running out. We are living in the end-times. Get right with Jesus today and stand on His promises to get you through these end-time battles.

Don’t complicate the process for salvation. Keep it simple.

Do the ABC’s and repent today.

• A: Admit that you are a sinner. (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 64:6, Ephesians 2:8-9)

• B: Believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God and that He died for your sins and rose from the dead for you. (John 3:16-18, 1Corinthians 15:1-4)

• C: Call on Jesus and repent of your sins and turn back to Him and ask Jesus to show you the way. (Romans 10:9-13, John 14:6)

 

May God bless you and keep you.

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