OUR SPIRITUAL WILDERNESS , part 1

From the desk of Dr. Mary Tisdale Green, RECOVER ALL WEDNESDAY

The best lessons are the bought ones. The ones we go through and come out the better from going through. Anyone can start out, but can and will you go through. What is the wilderness? In a spiritual wilderness God feels far away, distant, absent, and unresponsive… faith feels doubtful or uncertain… we feel alone, vulnerable, lost, and unprotected… there is the fear of hopelessness and the unknown… and it’s the place where Satan resides. As a result of the Devil’s work in the wilderness, many Christians not only question their faith, but God , they  think that God has forgotten or abandoned them… that all of their past efforts have been nothing but a waste…   No believer can fully avoid the wilderness experience — it is the path we must all travel.  It can take the form of depression… a crisis of faith… or one or more traumatic life events, of which the list is endless. It is not a joyful time. It is a time when we feel alone, deserted, and dying of spiritual thirst in the midst of a debilitating spiritual draught. All true saints go through a wilderness experienced in their life. We think, I have sinned, displeased God.… but sin is not the reason God sends us into the wilderness. King David was no stranger to wilderness experiences ( Ps 38:9-10),  All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing in not hidden . My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light is gone from my eyes. And though he sinned like you and me, yet he was “a man after God’s own heart”. The wilderness experience, is God’s way of getting us to exercise our faith . In the wilderness,  we are being tested, and our faith is being strengthened.

PRAYER: Thank you lord that even in the wilderness, you are there, In Jesus name, Amen.