OUR PAST IS LEFT BEHIND IN THE WILDERNESS OF GOD’S GRACE
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The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us. – Billy Graham –
Is this a wilderness time for you? Are you causing God to track you down in the desert of your own plans and failures? In the desolateness of your sin and regret? In the wilds of your wanderings into the world’s ways?
Our God may allow us to walk through wilderness times so that we might rediscover Him. We may wander as one without hope, weary and burdened. The heat seems more than we can bear. The sands of the desert appear to go on forever. Yet we have One who desires to show His grace in the wilderness. Our Heavenly Father longs for us to return to Him.
For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing. – Deuteronomy 2:7
God longed for His chosen people, the Israelites, to find Him in their wilderness wanderings. It was His endurance test for His beloved ones. Yet even when His presence was manifested as a cloud by day and fire by night, they continued to doubt His guidance, His protection, His grace. When they questioned His ability to provide, He gave them manna, the bread of heaven. When they complained of having no meat as they had in Egypt, He sent quail in abundance.
God showed compassion and benevolence toward His chosen ones throughout their time of wilderness training. Yet they grumbled and complained, saying they wanted to return to Egypt, to their former life of servitude under Pharaoh. These treasured ones questioned the leadership of Moses, the one chosen and anointed by God. They even believed Jehovah had abandoned them. They begged Aaron the priest to build them a golden calf to worship instead.
What began as an 11-day trek became a 40-year wilderness experience. It was a time marked by mistrust, unbelief, idolatry, and abandonment of God. This generation of Israelites reaped the consequences of their lack of faith. They were denied the privilege of entering the Promised Land. They failed to see God’s grace in the wilderness and return to Him.
I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them. – Hosea 11:4
Our wilderness times cannot cause us to forget who we are and Whose we are. Through Christ, we are God’s chosen ones. He longs for us to return to Him. He wants us to recognize and welcome the grace He offers us in our desert wanderings. As we come to fully comprehend His benevolent mercy, we will not be tempted to return to our old lives of sin.
God shepherded His people, Israel. He will be our Shepherd in desert times. He will lead us, guide us, protect us as we look to Him. He will be our Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, as we accept His bountiful provision. He will destroy the golden idols that take the place of Him. He will reign as sovereign ruler of our lives. We dare not miss God’s presence with us in the wilderness.
Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt. – Jeremiah 31:3-4
During our desert journeys, our loving Father strips away all that keeps us from Him. All our idols of pride and self-sufficiency, materialism and covetousness, sinful desires and worldly ways. He forever erases our dead ends, our wrong turns, our aimless wanderings. Our past is left behind in His grace in the wilderness. In Him we are restored, renewed, rebuilt.
God desires to strengthen our faith in these desert times. He wants us to persevere, trusting Him for direction, protection, provision. He yearns for us to yield to His sovereign rule. When we believe God for who He is, we will develop a steadfast, enduring faith in Him in our wilderness treks. By following hard after Him, our spirits are revived, enlivened. For He is our refuge, our shelter, our home.
My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. – Exodus 33:14
We may be wilderness wanderers at times in our lives. The vaster the desert, the deeper our faith will grow if we do not give up. God’s oasis awaits us at our desert journey’s end. He draws us with His everlasting love to His oasis of rest, compassion, hope.
Jesus our Savior has walked this path before us… and He walks with us on our wilderness treks. As we stay close to Him, He will faithfully see us through. For He is our grace in the wilderness.
† Eternal Takeaway – God provides us with His benevolent grace in our wilderness times †
