This desert place isn’t new to me. I’m a frequent visitor. I know how it feels, I know how it smells, and most of all, I remember the way to get here.
Most of the times I find myself back in the dryness of the desert because I’ve let the world tell me that it’s where I belong. It starts innocently enough. I do something with some value, with some meaning, and when someone says, “Hey, good job!” I enjoy the hit. Yep, some people are addicted to drink and drugs, but for me? Approval and food are my drugs of choice most days.
So someone says something nice, and I want more. I want to hear what I do and how I do it matter. I start to act in ways that get me that approval and start to seek it out. And for a while the whole system seems to be working. I do good stuff, people say good stuff, and then I do more good stuff. And it works. Until it doesn’t.
Because the world stops cheering and reminds you pretty quickly about everything that isn’t so OK about you. The world has a long memory about your past, reminding you about all your failures and false starts. Maybe you were an addict, or lost your temper with your kids. Maybe you weren’t the kind of wife you wanted to be, or maybe there were people who you’ve hurt. The world is in the remembering business, but not really in the grace business.
That’s why we need to remind ourselves, and those around us, how God sees us. No matter where I’ve been or where I am today. Whether I’m in my addction or out of it. Whether I’ve loved my neighbor or pretended not to be home when they came knocking. God is the one who is in the grace business, and I need to remember what I look like to Him. Especially when I’m sitting in the middle of the desert.
Here are a couple of things that help me:
- Saturate myself with words of grace.Like the video, (Jason Gray – Remind Me Who I Am) I am God’s beloved. God leads with grace. Hang out with people who speak grace. If you currently hang out with people who use God’s word to hit you over the head, may I humbly suggest you find some new friends. Listen to music that deals with grace. Spend some time with kids (ones you like,) and remember this is how God sees you.
- Read about how God sees you. When I feel like God’s words are bouncing off my chest instead of penetrating my heart, I pull our Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (you can find it here at ChristianBooks.com ). This book speaks grace over me and talks to me as if God were siting directly across from me.
When you are in the desert place, how do you remind yourself of God’s abundant love, even when you don’t feel it.
I just made a blog post yesterday with that song! lol Really we do need to be reminded of His love for us.
Wow. Did I need to read these words this morning. I, too, have been living in the desert for the past year. Thank you for reminding me to gather my resources and refocus myself on God. I have a stack of verses on index cards that I keep on a ring in my purse to pull out at a moments notice, read Jesus Calling (such a great book!) and am currently working through Beth Moore’s Breaking Free (God is doing big things in me through it). But songs really speak to me and keep me going throughout the day. Remind Me Who I Am is top on my playlist, as is Dara Maclean’s Free, Josh Wilson’s Fall Apart, Matthew West’s Strong Enough, and Michael W. Smith’s You Are Holy (Prince of Peace).
Carol, thank you for your words, too. Very well said, all of it. I’m writing “Good things happen in the desert.” on my bathroom mirror. Along with Romans 8:28: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Thanks again ladies. I’m putting on my helmet and getting back out there!
Good things happen in the desert. Since I live in the southwest, it is easy to see the effects of desert dwelling, and the miraculous results of its oft-hidden water. There is no need to fear the desert. In the desert, the sun burns away the “unnecessary,” leaving the crucial and the vital. Look how strong the desert plants are…sturdy, hardy, patient. Beautiful.
Time in the wilderness can cleanse us or refine us. But God doesn’t leave us there alone nor for a moment too long. Good things happen in the desert. The desert is the perfect place to keep reminding ourselves of what we know to be true, helping us walk by faith and not by sight. Water is in the desert, even when we don’t see it. Not only is it underground, nourishing tender roots, it also fills the very plants it feeds, so when they are cut, water flows from them. And they thrive. And they blossom. And they flower.
In my desert experiences, I have found it helpful to focus more on what God thinks and feels about me than my feelings…or lack of them…for God and what He is up to in my life. “Never doubt in the darkness what you know to be true in the light,” speaks to the desert. And so we dwell deep. We remind ourselves of the truth. We give ourselves continually and repeatedly to Him who has promised to never leave us, to always love us, and to work all things for our good. The desert is the perfect place for trust. And to remember we have a hero who loves us. And before too long, we realize He is holding us. Good things happen in the desert.
I have a couple of songs that have spoken to me while I’m living in the desert. Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir: I never lost My Praise; He’s been Faithful (this song always brings me to tears as I realize that God has never left me especially during those dry seasons in my life); More Than Enough; and For Every Mountain (again, makes me cry as I think about what God has brought me through). In addition, I read through the devotion “Jesus Calling”, and finally there are several verses that I read over and over again to remind myself that the dry season, this trip to the desert will not last forever. I find the book of Psalms very helpful because the emotions are so real…you hear David’s pain, sorrow, joy, gladness, and even confusion. I appreciate the “humanness” of Psalms.
Wow! Do I know how you feel? I think if we are honest, everyone at on point in their life feels like they are living in the desert. A friend of mine just started a small group/gathering (I call it the crying hour) for 8 ladies. Everyone is dealing with something! Somethings are huge and somethings are small. But what we are trying to remember is that our worth and value come only from Christ. Not the world. Not our children. Not our husbands. Not our success. Not our failures. It’s so easy to say, but so hard to believe!!
I saw a church sign that said “IT’S EASIER TO PREACH TEN SERMONS THAN IT IS TO LIVE JUST ONE!” the day that we all met and cried together. And yes, it is so easy to preach to someone else the truth about God and his love. But to really believe it is where we are all struggling.
God is amazing and if we call on Him, He will answer us. And show us great and might things we cannot even fathom! ~Jeremiah 33:3
My desert place has been the place of battle-weariness. On many fronts, I’ve been engaged in battle the past year or so, and it’s been a multi-pronged approach the enemy has been using to really try to exhaust me, physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. I’ve felt so emptied in this season that even though so much good has been going on alongside the hard stuff, I haven’t even blogged about anything since the first of the year (when I wrote about this very thing – the battle places and how in the world do we “abide” in these seasons……). So the extend of my “words of wisdom” on the desert are there for all who wish to read them http://busyblessedbeautiful.blogspot.com
My struggle has been to feel that I have anything to say in the middle of these places. Sometimes there is a lot to push through, and it leaves me feeling depleted, and I can be guilty of believing the enemy’s lie that until things are “perfect” I have nothing to share or to speak about, and you all are reminding me that is not the Lord. Thank you.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
Kathi, god bless you for being able and willing to let us see your inner turmoil as I’m sure all of us have at some point. For me, it’s usually the people closest to me that can send me spiraling down into the desert. And I love that song by Jason grey! It’s really close to being my theme song. Because no matter who is around us, no matter what they say or fail to say, they are only human just like me and we need to remember the only opinion of us that truly truly matters is Gods. We are always special and loved by him. I have been wanting to memorize a verse a week or every other week. I want to start with coloss 3:23 . Because I feel like my being a housewife and mommy aren’t appreciated sometimes but I’m not doing it primarily for others but for gods glory!!! May you all have a very blessed day!!!!
Kathi–
I think we all feel that way. Words of encouragement are so needed to each of us. I too have experienced great discouragement these last two years–two things that have saved me through that pit was this:
Reading and remembering Ephesians 6: 10-18–Putting on God’s full armor. With the subject you wrote about I will focus on passages 16-17
16–In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17–Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The enemy wants us to focus on the negative. The negative things people say to us and even the negative of the lack of words from others. He has flaming arrows that dig and poke at us. There are some that go deeper penitrating into our heart replying the conversation repeatedly. Hitting deep into our hearts by words, actions or evan lack of words and actions. But the key is verse 17. Placing the helmet of salvation on our heads. That is Gods grace. Grace we should extend to others around us. Grace unto our own selves with replaying the wrong we have done repeatly in our head. Therefore, when we have done wrong–acckowledge it, ask for forgiveness and let it go. This is the same with others around us–letting it go even when they do not ask for forgivness–because when we did wrong and God had the grace with us to forgive us before we even did it, and He, Jesus, is our example on how we are to live.
The second verse is:
2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
If yuo look on my timeline in facebook. You will see a differnce in what i am posting. I am working on my platform and my voice. The voice I want to say to others is encouragment. Don’t give up, stay the course. ytopu can do it! We ar all not the same, we all make mistake, we all cannot be perfect in our work, words, action and reactions. But we can learn from them and we can learn from each other. You can do it Kathi!!! do not become discouraged, stay the course and when you see me slipping and feeling down please send me this comment to re-encourage me. We are all in this life together, all on a differnt course that God has laid out for us–but we can encourange and lift each other up.