from crawling to walking
I am reminded of God’s sustaining grace several times throughout my desert journey. These reminders have been a source of power for me, giving me the ability to walk through this time, putting one foot in front of the other. They have been like the steam that propels a ship through the ocean, working in the inner areas of my heart and setting my gears in motion. I walk through a season of spiritual dryness just as I walk through any season of my life, by the Spirit. It’s a back and forth process, and there is a discovery to be made about living by the Spirit. Knowing of God’s desire to sustain us and to reveal His faithfulness to us is such an essential part of walking by the spirit through our desert seasons.
So there were three purposes of God leading us into the desert. How can we get to a place where we enjoy the journey? How do you get through such a season, not on our hands and knees but on our feet. Not falling and rising again continually, but a nice steady gait.
Crawling: barely making it through each day
Walking: enjoy the desert season one day at a time
Let’s look at what to expect in the desert times.
My parents brought me to church when I was a baby; I grew up believing that God was real and that he loved me. when most people begin to question the truth of their religion or any religion, When I was in 9th grade, I was an atheist for approximately five minutes. I told myself that intellectually I could make an argument for the existence of God in both directions. From my grasp of what I had read and what I had been taught, Christianity sounded very true to me. Original sin, sacrificial atonement, and resurrection all sounded like a very sophisticated and well-reasoned set of beliefs. But what floored my faith in God was the thought about how I was only exposed to these beliefs because of the family in which I grew up. If I had been born in a Buddhist home, then I would be Buddhist; a Jewish home, Jewish; a Muslim home, Muslim; an
But then another thought came to mind which brought my heart to a place of awe – in awe of who God is and what I am not. My thought was about how could I even trust my own thoughts. How do I know that someone some force, the devil, was not lying to me right then and there in attempt to pull me away from the truth about God. And even if there was no such thing as the devil, how could I be sure that I was not deceiving myself came to the conclusion that I could not even trust my own thoughts. I quickly converted back to Christianity and decided again to follow Christ.
I have not seriously doubted God’s existence since that moment – why? Why is it that God’s existence is firmly planted in my mind, that intellectual arguments based on the existence of evil or the science of evolution do not pose significant problems? What separates this belief than the belief that God loves me, that I have immeasurable value as His child, that God knows what is best for me and always provides for all my needs – why are those beliefs so shaky. Why is that the slightest bad turn of events or mistake sends me into a fit of anxiety where I forget the security and grace I have in Christ? Why? I believe the reason is because I have made my belief in His existence foundational. It is something that I base all of my other beliefs on, but as far as his existence is concerned, it is more true to me that he exists than that I have an ability to discern what is true on my own.
It is like we are in a pit of quick sand sinking and then our feet hit solid rock at about the point the sand is at the level of our stomach. That rock is a foundation. There are other slabs of rock around us that we can pull into the pit. Immediately the rock begins to sink, and we cannot use it hoist ourselves out. But we can position it so that is directly beneath our feet. We build that rock into part of our foundation so that we can eventually stand. It is the same strategy we use to stand up in our spiritual desert. We say, God is faithful. Even though I am in between the time since God has promised to when he will fulfill, he is faithful. It’s a matter of when, not if. God is. We say, God is meeting all my needs. That’s a fact it is more true than the idea that we have the ability to know our needs. It is through this process that we building a firm place to stand where we can begin our walk.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a fountain whose waters never fail.
Tom, you have been looking to your weekly counseling time as your fountain, your little bit of relief from the dryness. But I have put a fountain in you, a river that is overflowing with my Spirit and my presence. You have all that you need to live every day in full. Tap into that river inside of you.
Observation - Do you feel like you are barely making it through each day or enjoying the journey one day at a time?
Understanding - How can you know if you’re like that well-watered garden, like a fountain whose waters never fail, if you’ve never felt it before?
Application - If you are a river today, who can I bless today? If today is dry, can I take it easy and trust God is leading me?
