Friday, July 2, 2010

The Dessert In the Desert

Ok...I'll admit this entry won't be fuzzy wuzzy like my cloud gig... but it is what it is, and I promise it will be orth your time.

I've been reading through the Bible in 90 days... on Biblegateway.com (my favorite website, hands down), it is one of the reading plans. I have never gotten this far into it. I usually get through Exodus and I exodus outta there... Just too many nitty gritty details...and let's not get into Leviticus...or worse, Numbers! Sheesh!!!

Well this time I've so far made it through to Judges (I'm about two weeks behind, between getting sick and being at camp), and it's been an amazing journey!

Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic here, but I honestly feel like the Israelites...wandering the wilderness. I was in a horrible situation with my family, and God delivered me from it, but now I feel like I'm wandering that seemingly pointless wilderness between the bad and the promise. I have so many hopes and dreams that, only with God on my side, can be reached! So much potential! So much...future!

So much to thank God for for delivering me from the past. Dark depression, low self esteem, poor self-image and extreme stress and anxiety were all left on the altar of the LORD and are just part of my past. By His Grace, I'm never going back to any of it!

But here I am, stuck in the middle...not getting much of anywhere... it can be very discouraging (I just hope it won't be 40 years!), and disheartening most of the time!

But then I came across a gem of a verse in Joshua. At the end of their long journey, the writer says, seemingly in conclusion to the whole messy, five-book-long story, that

"Not one of the LORD'S good promises to the house of Israel failed;
every one was fulfilled." (Joshua 21:45)

So I'm taking hold of that verse. God is a promise-keeping kind of God. He has promised that if we delight in Him He will give us the desires of our heart.

And I wish I could sit here and tell you all the great stories of how He's done that! (of course for sakes of time, and confidentiality, I can't, but trust me it's some awesome stuff) I've learned so much about my God that I never would have learned had things not gone so crazy all year...it's sort of the dessert in the middle of the desert...

I hope that this is of some encouragement to anyone else who feels like they're stuck in the wilderness! I know it helped me a great deal. I still feel like I'm stuck in the middle, but it's not so much wandering anymore to me, it's more of a waiting on God. And I'm willing to do that as long as I have to!

Praise His Holy Name!!!

2 comments:

  1. You are wise beyond your years, missy. :)

    Love ya!

    Ruth

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  2. Oh I know! HAHAHA just kidding.

    "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." -Ecclesiastes 1:18. So trust me, it's not because I'm brainy or anything, hehe, it's because of the junk God has allowed me to go through. I wouldn't be where I am today without having gone through all the junk. Yay junk!! :)

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