Deserts.

             These are hard for everyone. Unlike our other seasons of life, these are the times when God is not evidently visible. Yes, we know He’s still at work, but we just can’t see Him. Deserts are those times in life where our relationship with God just seems to be dry. We’re in a drought.  Israel went through the desert, but they handled it all wrong. They wandered in the wilderness for years, yet even when God was clearly evident by sending them manna and quail, they still complained. They did not acknowledge He was their leader, they did not tell their children of the amazing works He had done in Egypt! God had led the Israelites through the 10 plagues without harm, and opened the seas just for them! Yet, how soon they forgot.  They didn’t acknowledge His presence and still wandered.

               

             This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’ I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.”(Jeremiah 2:6-7)

                

                 God had rescued Israel from so many things, yet they never even asked where He was! When we go through desert what is our reaction to His sense of absence? Do we seek Him further and draw close to Him in these times, or do we go on wandered and wallowing in the dryness? I can only pray we seek Him further. When we are thirsty for the Lord He says,

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. (Isaiah 55:1)

              God freely gives to those who ask. He always wants us to draw closer to Him. Yes, we will go through floods, deserts, uncertainties, battles, overall just hard times, but whatever season God’s there, He’s our guide! In these times cling to these promises. He will never leave our forsake, He’s our rock, our refuge, our love. Never forget.