Seems Like A Wilderness

Psalm 37:34 “Wait for the Lord and keep His way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.”

Sometimes what seems like a wilderness to me is really my place of greatest safety. I don’t always see it in the beginning, but then later I see it as a plain-as-day divine rescue. God’s intervention.

When God protected Mary and Joseph, and ultimately the people of God, by ensuring the safe delivery of the baby Messiah into the world, the unseemly manner and questionable circumstances were puzzling. God protected them by moving them to a place of lesser comfort, but of greater dependence on Him. Lesser comfort and greater dependence – this is a pattern God uses, I know.

Waiting is an absolutely difficult thing to do… Betrayals between friends are unthinkable. Faith in and dependence on God are required… Not giving up on a wayward child is excruciating. Faith in and dependence on God are required…Praying for decades for unsaved family members is taxing. Faith in and dependence on God are required… Sickness and death are painful reminders that this isn’t how life is supposed to be. Faith in and dependence on God are required… Like oxygen. Required for living through it, growing through it, seeing God’s Sovereignty and grace in it.

I find the word “rescue” written by God all over these places of greatest safety, these wildernesses, but much later. Maybe even a lifetime later…

Psalm 66:12 “You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us to a place of abundance.” Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Faith in and dependence on God are required. And waiting…