I Found God in the Desert

I FOUND GOD IN THE DESERT

 

Several weeks ago “Mr. Mark” taught a lesson about some of the Bible characters who found God in the desert, or in the desperate times of their lives.  He spoke of stories, such as Abraham meeting his Lord by the Terebinth tree, Joseph captured and enslaved by the Midianites, but staying faithful to God, Moses and the burning bush, the Israelites wandering in the Sinai Desert dependent upon their Heavenly Father for forty years, Paul on the Damascus Road, etc. This particular Sunday School lesson morphed me back to our Holy Land trip and our esteemed tour guide, Ronen Ben Moshe.  I remembered when we were in Qumran that he talked about how so many of the people in the Bible found God in the desert, because that was where they needed Him most, when they were destitute.

As I pondered this, I finally fathomed that having my life laid waste before me in an instant, and finding myself in the barrenness of the desert, culminated in the “unearthing” of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Suffice it to say, I had held Him in the stony parts of my heart for way too long.  For the past nearly three years, now, I have been on a pilgrimage to discover whether or not Jesus is enough.  Most days, I find He is because I can hang onto the truth that He is the I AM.  It’s those other days when my faith wavers, and I get all discombobulated with the cares of this world. 

To contest this mendacity, I have been praying and praying and praying that God will give me glimpses of Himself when I am in the pit of despair.  I cannot even begin to tell you all the ways He has tenderly revealed Himself and had my back, over and over and over again.  As I have read through the Psalms these past couple of months, the recurring theme that I have come across from King David is a constant reminder of God’s steadfast love!  That truth is one I can grasp hold of on the darkest days of my life.  When I find myself longing to get off this raging river and out of the rapids that threaten to suck me down into their vortex--in my mind’s eye, I see that stream in the desert, the one that was overflowing its banks during Israel’s 100 year flood, flowing wildly toward Abraham’s Beersheeba in the Negev Desert.  And, at last, I start to believe that this is truly where God wants me, because for this reason He plunged me into the wilderness, so I would find His river of life in a dry and thirsty land, and thus, treasure Him anew.