Our message on Sunday touched on the story of the 40 years of wilderness wandering. Obviously, not a new story. But for the first time I found myself thinking about the wandering years and the generation that lost out on the promised land living. God sentenced them to wander for their unbelief and lack of faith. They didn’t trust Him enough to enter the land that had been PROMISED TO THEM by the I Am. Their logic and mindset seems so silly. But that is not where I want to go with this. God could easily have just struck down that generation, right at that moment. He could have stretched out His hand in might and righteousness, and eliminated the faith-lackers. But He didn’t. Instead, they had to wander aimlessly in a wilderness full of nothing, completely reliant on God for food and water. Reduced to a basic existence, they spent the remainder of their days living a reality of shame. How else could they feel after being so wilfully blind to God’s plan and goodness. He had delivered them from so many situations. He was a God of victory. It was their human inability, lacking the gift we have in the Spirit, that made it so hard for them to believe God could do what they deemed impossible. It was a long 40 years. I wonder what they did with their time, besides the obvious survival stuff. Did they recognise their error? Did they choose to live by faith again? Did the repent? Or did they grumble? Did they live those 40 years bitter and resentful and angry? I feel like those 40 years were a gift. They were a gift of time for that generation to consider their choices and remember the blessings.
The reality is that we will all have some wandering time, maybe our whole lives will be wandering time. When we feel bereft. When we feel like we are aimlessly trudging. But we have a choice. We can live the desert wilderness time looking for God, seeking him out, trying to know him better, living in faith. Or we can live those years in bitterness and anger, hunting out all the ways we feel God has wronged or abandoned us. How we live in the wilderness will determine much of how we live in the times of victory and plenty. Yes, God promises good to us, but that good comes in His time in accordance with his will. We need to learn to be thankful for the manna in the desert, for the Rock that split open and pours forth and quenches our thirst, for the ever present faithfulness. Our wilderness years are preparing us for the eternal plenty at the end of the race. Let us take a moment and learn a lesson. We can live in the desert growing in bitterness and dying standing far from God, or we can choose to grow in faithfulness as we rely on God’s constant provision as we wander. It is only aimless when we forget what we are living for.
faith from the stove 