Wilderness Experience

      Living in a wilderness of uninhabited and uncultivated land will test and prove one's physical, mental, and spiritual strength.  With no shelter other than a tent in a dry and dusty land will wear on one's health and physical strength.  The task of searching and finding water and food will take over every mental thought.  This happened once to a nation of people.  After the children of Israel left Egypt, they were without water.  God provided.  They were without food.  God provided.  Still, they had no faith in God.  Due to their lack of faith, they did not make it to the Promised Land.  Instead, they wondered in the wilderness for forty years and many perished along the way.  They perished because they had no faith in God.  For others wondering in the wilderness, their faith grew.  The wilderness experience humbled and proved them to show what was in their hearts and whether they would keep God's commandments or not. So, it will be for us at times.  We will feel like we are wondering in a wilderness of unknown, unanswered prayers, turmoil, fear, and pain.  In this wilderness experience, we will be tested and proved to see what is in our hearts and minds.

     With hearts and minds faithfully loving and seeking God, we will survive in the wilderness, because our faith is in God, not self.  Often, we rely on self.  Don't attempt anything without seeking God first.  Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 4:29, 'seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.'  Then, when you are in tribulation and very hard times, turn to the Lord your God and obey his voice, and God will not forsake you, neither destroy you.  Even as you wait on the Lord, keep your faith knowing that God loves you and will not forsake you.  

     It is faith that keeps us going in the wilderness experience.  Faith knowing God is always there.  Faith knowing God is faithful to those 'that love him and keep his commandments.' (Deuteronomy 7:9)  Whatever your wilderness experience, God is testing you and molding you into who he wants you to be.  He is preparing you for the Promised Land.  For the children of Israel, the Promised Land was a place to live in peace as long as they obeyed God's commandments.  Our Promised Land is Heaven.  Since Heaven is our Promised Land, this world is our wilderness.  So, as you live each day, whether drifting in the wilderness of the unknown of unanswered prayers, turmoil, fear, or pain, be assured that God is there.   Seek Him.  Let your faith grow in your wilderness experience.

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“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."  Deuteronomy 8:1-3 NKV

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.  Deuteronomy 4:29-31  NKV

   

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