Streams In The Desert
One of the fun things in writing a blog is finding images to spruce it up! I am not especially talented when it comes to graphics and images but I do enjoy looking at them. My favorites are those of landscapes. Green is my favorite color (blue is a very close runner up) and so it's no wonder I am fascinated by the beauty and wonder of God's creation. I love the mountains, rolling hills, gardens, countrysides, oceans, sunrises and sunsets. Tropical landscapes are also my favorites. There's just something about turquoise water with white sandy beaches and palm trees that calls out to me. Perhaps it's because I live in the Northeast where winters are cold and long, with the nights being even colder and longer than the days. The thought of resting on a warm sandy tropical beach is inviting to me.
My least favorite landscape besides perhaps a swamp, would be the desert. Photos of the desert just do not excite me. I have no thoughts of "I wonder what it would be like to be there." or "I can't wait to visit someday!" To me deserts are dry, barren, and boring! I have no desire to go there! Yet, even tough I have never visited, I can tell you that I have been there.
By definition a desert is a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all - from dictionary.com. The little bit of rainfall that does occur in a desert environment is unpredictable. The desert is a hostile place. A person traveling through a can experience sunburns, sandstorms, dehydration, and snakebites, among other things. Have you ever been burned by others? Have you been through the storms of life? Maybe you have even been bitten a few times and as a result the poison left behind is affecting everything in your life. Remember that a little east affects the whole batch! - Galatians 5:9
Yes, I have desert experiences. So what's it like being a pastor's wife while going through the desert? It is no different for me than it is for you!
A few of the areas where I go through dry places are in my relationships, finances, and even in my walk with the Lord. My experience in going through these desert experiences is that they never come at a convenient time. Usually the enemy likes to try to kick you while you are down! Have you felt knocked down lately? Remember what it says in 2 Corinthians 4:9. We are may be knocked down, but we are not destroyed!! It may feel like a long, slow, painful death at times, but the desert experience is not going to kill you.
It so happens that while going through my "desert" experience, I am inconveniently going through the change of life! Often feeling moody, emotional, tired, and having "brain fog" along with the extra 25 pounds I have gained. Many days I feel weak, weary, dry and in one great big desert. Being in a transitional period of knowing the Lord is drawing me further into ministry but the resources to help are not yet there, both financial and support with my kids and their needs. I am being stretched like never before and having to rely on the Lord like never before. Like you, in all of these areas I have good days and bad days and to be completely honest, I have some days where I don't feel very "spiritual" at all!
There are many things we do to fill ourselves with when we feel dry and empty. Some of us rely on our spouse or our children to fill that place. We can saves ourselves a lot of disappointment and heartache if we settle within our hearts that we must not put that expectation on others, not even your spouse. My husband is not responsible for my happiness. Neither are my children. Likewise, I have to remember that I am not responsible for his happiness (no feelings of guilt or self-blame when he is having a bad day, and I am not responsible for my children's happiness. I have to remind myself of that one all the time. I can't make up for what was and it's not my job to.
Some of us shop until we drop.
I was more able to do that in my days as a young adult, before marriage, before children. My husband has taken me shopping on several occasions (Yes, he actually likes to shop!) though it's not the same as when I was thinner and it was easier to find clothes that felt good on me. There are times I wish I still was able to do just shop anytime I wanted, even though I know that shopping will not solve all my problems! I do love that feeling though, of coming home with more than one outfit! As you take them out of the bag to sort them and lay them out. Then comes the tough decision of which outfit you will wear first. The very next day you walk out of your house feeling good!! I have to admit I haven't had that feeling in quite a while. On the other hand, it's those times I don't feel that I can conquer the world; I may not feel good in my own skin, or I'm having a bad hair day, that I need to remember that I have eternal clothes. I have been clothed with His righteousness. I have in my wardrobe a garment of praise, but what is in my "eternal" wardrobe does not do me any good if I don't put it on and wear it.
Some of us like to eat to make ourselves feel better. I love food!! I especially love bread, pasta, and anything sweet! Because of high cholesterol, a family history of diabetes, and a proven history with my own body that the removal of wheat from my diet lowers my cholesterol levels more than doing anything else, my doctor wants me on a plant based diet, with meat in "side" portions. Thankfully for me I love fruits and veggies. Others in my household though do not. That means I am often tempted. I have Pepperidge Farm cookies in my cupboard right now as well as a refrigerator full of Chinese take out food; left overs from a church event we had last night. I had blown my "diet" Saturday even before church that evening while meeting with two dear sisters for breakfast. I just had to have those blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup. Wheat, carbs, and sugar - I fell off the bandwagon! I justified this by declaring that I
was not going to eat lunch. I didn't eat lunch, but I did eat more than one serving of Chinese food! I ate more than I should have but what really fed my soul was the not the food but the fellowship! See, it's not the external things that satisfy! My sisters in the Lord and I spent 5 well-needed hours in that restaurant just sharing, laughing, and encouraging one another. We don't do that often enough!
Some folks drink, some drug, (been there, done both and have been marvelously delivered) some gamble, some use sex, some are addicted to video games, maybe it's athletics; the avenues available are endless! Why is it that we seek so many ways to fill the empty, dry, and barren places within us? Often they not only leave us still thirsty but we end up paying a heavy price with nothing to show for it, and sometimes we are left even thirstier than before. It's time we stopped drinking at the wrong well!!
That brings me to the name of my blog site, Oasis of Glory. An oasis is a fertile spot in the desert where water is found. How encouraging it is to know that you and I have an oasis right in the midst of our desert experiences! We have access to a continual refreshing. Jeremiah 31:25 "I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint."When we feel dry, there's a well we can drink from. This well will never go dry! It is a bottomless well!! Where is this well? Jesus said of Himself: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. John 7:38
The good news is you don't have to go anywhere to find these rivers of living water! You have them flowing from within you! At times it may seem like everything that could go wrong is going wrong and that the well has dried up. Don't ever believe that lie that comes straight from the Devil! The river within you is living and flowing! Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well: Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:13-14
You may be saying to yourself the very thing I have said to myself many times. "But Lord, why do I have to go through this?" When everything is going well, we have a tendency to forget all His benefits. We often stop seeking Him and we put all of our focus on the issues of life around us.
How easily we get distracted and too busy to hear Him knock at the door of our hearts! - Revelation 3:20. We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19) But relationship can't be one-sided. It is reciprocal. He allows us seasons of thirst so that we will seek Him. The person in the desert is not going to seek for water if they are not thirsty.
Medically speaking, when you psychically feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. You have failed to drink enough water. Likewise, we often fail to seek the Lord until after we have exhausted all other things that have become nothing more than a mirage, an optical illusion of peace and hope.
Last Spring at our Ladies Retreat, I taught on the Song of Songs. One of the things we learned is that the Shulamite woman goes through seasons of where her Beloved seemingly leaves her. She is immature and the relationship is more one-sided. He calls her lovely even though she is "dark and dry as the desert tents of the wandering nomads." 1:5. She wants to remain where she is comfortable. He then seemingly abandons her in the night season. He tells her early on in 1:8 "Listen, my radiant one--if you ever lose sight of me just follow my footsteps where I lead my lovers." She learned that she cannot draw back from Him because the angry brothers wounded her. He encouraged her to reconnect with a flock that follows Him. The devil wants us in isolation, wandering in the desert alone and in a place where we are separated from others who know and hear God's voice. The truth is He will never actually leave us of forsake us but there are seasons where He will remove the awareness of His presence so that we will seek after Him.
We all know Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. We love that scripture so much because we think it's all about us. It's never all about us though. It's about Him. It's about His Kingdom. We forget about the next two verses: Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Just as a thirsty person in the desert seeks water for they know without it they will die, we need to be that desperate in seeking after Him. So I must rise in search of Him, looking throughout the city, seeking until I find Him, Even if I have to roam through every street, nothing will keep me from my search. Where is He--my soul's true love? He is nowhere to be found. Song of Songs 3:2 Passion translation.
He leaves her during the night season because she would not go with him to the Mountain. He did not abandon her. He was drawing her to follow after Him because He could not stay where she was at. She was even discouraged from seeking after Him by others but there is a higher calling, and greater destiny that awaits! That destiny was not just for her but for many others who would come to seek Him as well. The promise is not just for you but for many others including your children and your children's children.
Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
We must thirst and hunger after Him and Him alone. We must be so desperate for His presence that like a dehydrated and sun-stroked person wandering in the desert, we do not stop until we find Him because without Him we will die in this dry and barren place! We must realize that we have streams of refreshing available to us and that the answers are already within us because Christ is in us. We already have all that we need. We have the Holy Spirit to help us, comfort us, and guide us. We have God's Word. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12 NIV - His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything. - The Message. When you don't know how to tap into that river within you, dive into the Word. We need to pursue Him. I love what our friend Kathie says; "Your greatest ministry is to enjoy Him". That's it. Everything else will flow out of your relationship with Him. The moment I find myself looking to other people or things to fill that dry and barren place in my life, I have to stop and remind myself that I already have the answer because the answer lives in me. When I feel like I am in a dry and barren land and life gets hard, I have streams in the desert, an oasis of glory! I have a place deep within me, a fertile spot where water is found!
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. - Colossians 1:27
