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Day 4: The Necessary Desert

When God freed His people from slavery in Egypt, He did not bring them directly to the Promised Land. The journey was through the desert. The desert doesn't look pleasant at all. It's hard, it's lonely, and its stillness is deafening.

It is very difficult to recover when life reaches the desert, the dry and lonely period. Our hearts and minds become tired and drained, and everything seems lifeless or meaningless.

But God uses the desert and the wilderness to speak to His people.

God spoke to and blessed Abraham while he was in the wilderness. God brought the Israelites into the wilderness because He wanted to speak to them at Mount Sinai. It was there that God spoke to Moses. In the desert, God met Elijah. In the desert, God spoke to John the Baptist, the greatest man born of a woman and a man who spent most of his life in these difficult conditions. The desert is where the Holy Spirit sent Jesus before He began His public ministry. Jesus rested in the desert so that God could talk to Him. And it was in the desert where Jesus was baptized. There, God the Father, in a loud voice, announced to the entire world that Jesus was His beloved Son!

God makes Himself known in the desert. A distraction-free place is the best place for an important meeting.

You may be going through a time of deep pain and wondering if you will survive the dryness and darkness that surrounds your situation. Hosea says that God draws us into the desert to speak to us tenderly.

God takes us to the desert not to destroy but to restore us! In the desert, we become aware of all the “masters” of our souls and the things that keep us in bondage. This may be the most painful moment of your life, but it is also the most important moment of your life.

It's a journey, and in this desert, you will find a door of hope.

You are not alone in this desert. You are surrounded by angelic hosts assigned to minister to you. In this wilderness, the Holy Spirit is with you to reveal your purpose and mission.

In the wilderness, our sin is exposed. We become vulnerable. Our pride, immorality, lies, and anxiety appear, and we are left naked. And then we cry out to the Lord and He responds with mercy. We experience compassion from Him. God's love surrounds us like a protective garment. He binds our wounds, adorns us with His righteousness, and proclaims our identity as His beloved. In the wilderness, He marries you, and the relationship is sealed with the words: 'I am my Beloved's, and He is mine'.

Hope can only be found and developed in the terrain of a desert. And hope is essential – it's what you take into the next era. God will do everything to develop in you what will last forever: love, faith, and hope.

The desert is necessary. It is in this place that God opens the door of hope for you.

My Prayer:

Father, I don't understand a lot of what I'm going through right now. I'm in a dry place with almost no provision and no vision of exit. But I thank You that Your Word says I'm not alone here. The Lord brought me to this place, and I need to hear Your voice. May Your angels minister over me today. May the Holy Spirit lead me to discover the door of hope that awaits me in this desert. In the name of Jesus, Amen.