Hosea 2:14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.”
The path into the desert isn’t lit up like an airport runway beckoning me to land and drink the sand. Getting lost in the desert generally means that even after I thought I had figured everything out, something still went wrong. Somehow, my ‘plan’ failed. Or maybe I failed. All alone in unfamiliar territory seems to be where the ‘icky’ parts of me are exposed. I find old wounds that still hurt. Patterns of performance resurface as I see that who I am isn’t who I’ve always hoped to be. Disappointment leads to anger and anger leads to bitterness, until all I hear are the same lies that keep me bound to my fears.
I’m tired of dragging my feet through the desert, fighting the very challenges I know will change my life. I believe there is sweetness in the sand. I want to get lost in my Savior and find he’s there, in the desert, waiting… for me- to stop pointing my finger at the rest of the world, to stop blaming others for the inadequacies that I see in myself, to start trusting beyond my own realm of knowledge and experience, and to start believing the promises of His truth. Those who haven’t been burned have never experienced the intensity of fire or the purity that comes as a result of being refined.
You can’t see both sides of the mountain until you climb to the top. Sometimes love hurts. And giving never merits a return. But the promises of God never return void. I want to live for more than what I can see.
‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Genesis 28:15
