Hi friends! The Lord has been teaching me so much about the wilderness I couldn’t squeeze it all into one blog. So here is Navigating The Wilderness Pt. 2!!

Do you feel lonely, sad, and confused?

Are you struggling to see why the Lord is allowing things to happen in your life?

Have you found yourself shouting, “God, where are you? What are you doing?”

If you answered yes to any of these, you may be walking through your own spiritual wilderness. Welcome! Know that you are not alone, you are actually in good company.

I have found myself wandering in a wilderness for about 2 weeks now so I feel your pain. The Lord is revealing so many incredible truths to me about this time and I feel I should share their encouragement.

What is God’s purpose in the wilderness?

I think the Lord leads us into the wilderness so we can understand the true nature of our hearts. Of course the Lord loves us and delights in blessing us abundantly, but how are we to understand the nitty gritty deepest parts of who we are if never in a place aside of abundance.

Think of it this way. You don’t truly know your need and desire for electricity until a snowstorm hits and you lose all power in your home. We don’t truly understand the nature of our heart’s desire until we are humbled.

Notice in the wilderness God humbles the Israelites.

”He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…” -Deuteronomy 2:3

It sounds contradicting to say the Israelites were hungry, yet the Lord was providing manna for them every day. To better understand, consider their situation. Let’s say all you had for breakfast was a loaf of bread, then for lunch another loaf of bread, and ending your day with a final meal of one loaf of bread. No peanut butter, no jelly, no cold cuts, just bread for forty years. Think you’d be hungry for something else besides bread? Yeah, me too.

God didn’t give them what their flesh wanted, but only what they needed.

How else did they hunger?

“Your clothes did not wear out…” vs. 4

We get so excited about how their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out, but can you imagine wearing the same exact outfit every single day for forty years? I’ve only been in Cambodia eight weeks and I am already sick of my 8 different outfits I brought with me. I can’t imagine.

In the wilderness God didn’t give them what their flesh wanted, but only what they needed.

I think He allowed this hunger in them to test them. He used this time to reveal whether they would seek Him or what their flesh craved; to see if they would hunger and thirst for righteousness or for comfort and pleasure.

The wilderness is a time where you get your “daily bread,” not an “abundance of things.” This is a time when you get what you need physically, materially, and spiritually, rather than what you actually want. You may experience something socially you would never desire, but maybe it’s what your soul needs in this season of your life.

The wilderness is a dry place. It may be dry spiritually, financially, socially, or physically. It is here that God doesn’t give an abundance of things, but daily bread. It is the wilderness that purifies us. Here we learn that our pursuit is to be His heart, not His provision.

The wilderness reveals the motives of your heart. Ask the Lord to reveal the motives of your heart that will hold you back and the ones that will propel you forward. Once you know your motives, become a wise servant who seeks out what is beneficial to your relationship with the Lord. It is here that you will reap the fruit by understanding His character and purpose at work in this season of your life.