A dry hot, cracked, bare landscape waiting for water. Any guesses? A dessert! Just kidding a desert!
Last night at Shabbat my Rabbi’s closing words were, “G-d will NOT leave you in the desert.” And so Saturday’s post topic is faith in the desert.
In the Old Testament book of Joshua we read about the Israelites wondering in the wilderness for forty years.
Now, I don’t know about you but I’m a phone GPS navigation kind of person. I cannot tell you how many times on family trips someone has handed me a map and has expected me to navigate without using my phone. And to add into that I cannot tell you how many times I have almost gotten my family stranded in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, my family has figured out just to tell me to put my phone GPS on. I am simply directionally turned around. I can get lost in my own hometown.
Yes, I have gotten many people lost in the car, however, I have never led someone astray for forty years! Well, the Israelites were in the wilderness for a long period of time!
For the Israelites, I am going to make the argument that was an issue of faith in the L-rd’s provision. Their faith was running out that they would find their way out. I mean, think about it, how would you feel if you were lost and you felt as though you have lost G-d down the road while trying to find your way? In the book of Deuteronomy G-d says that He will never leave you, but how often do we believe that?
I often see in my own community that so many times when we are walking through a desert that we to lose faith. Are we tired, worn out, emotionally drained, and are we tired of waiting for G-d’s provision? We are the Israelites. Our faith runs dry and we try to find alternative solutions for shalom: talk to others instead of G-d, read Facebook rather than the bible, and go to the movies instead of church. But how good is that truly? If we embraced faith in Yeshua fully we should be striving to search harder for Him in the dry, cracked, bare piece of land looking for Mayim Chaim (water with life).
This morning I was made aware that Pastor Saeed has been relessed from prison. Praise Yeshua! What I find especially amazing about this is that my congregation has been praying for him over of the course that he has been arrested for his faith. Many times when I teach the children one of them mentions to pray for Pastor Saeed. Saeed had been in prison for three years. I’m not going to lie, I can see how many of those praying for this Pastor had faith going dry. However, what would have happened if EVERYONE stopped lifting him up in prayer?
Would he have hostage for 12 years?
There is no doubt that you’re going to wonder through the wilderness at some point in your life. But it makes a huge difference in perspective when you start searching for water instead sand. What are you searching for?
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