Bringing Life in the Desert

In this devotional, we will explore how we can bring life into dry and parched places and lives around us. After all, is that not what Jesus asked of us when he gave us The Great Commission? As the church, we carry living water everywhere we go. What does it look like to prepare for streams in the desert? How can we prepare the way for the Lord to come into the lives of others?

The world is a wasteland and wilderness

The world we live in is a desert, a wasteland! People are found going from mirage to mirage. The wilderness in the Bible denotes everything painful and trying, with all the misery of this fallen world. The people around us who don't know Jesus are living in a desert with no help, no hope, and no living water to quench their thirst. We have the answer: Christ, who is the oasis, the fount that brings life-giving water to a thirsty soul.

We are called to bring streams of life into that wilderness

Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
Isaiah 35:6-7

Bringing streams into the desert is about satisfying the thirst for God. When the prophet Isaiah prophesied about streams in the desert, he promised that Christ would come and be the source of living water. Jesus himself is the fountainhead of living water. He left his Spirit to dwell in us, as we see at the beginning of Acts, so that streams of living water would continually flow in and through our lives.

Witness is the goal

When we talk about witnessing, the first thing to remember is that the goal is to be obedient to bearing witness. In Acts 1:8, Jesus says to the disciples right before he ascended, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”. This is not just about leading people to the moment of salvation. Talking about Jesus is the goal, planting seeds of faith through witness and testimony. There is a clock metaphor you can visualise here, where your witness may just take them to the next point in their salvation journey.

It's a spiritual reality that those who don’t know Christ are living in the wilderness; they don’t have water. They are walking around on a path that will eventually lead to death. As Christians, we have the good news that Christ is the water in the dry land. No one who comes to him will thirst again. The Holy Spirit's empowerment in our life is living water that brings life to the desert. We need to bring this life to everyone we meet! Over the next four days, we will talk about bringing life into the wilderness for our neighbours, family, friends, and work colleagues.

Prayer: Lord, I thank you that you are life in the desert, a source of living water amid the world's wilderness. I pray that through this devotional, you will help me become the living water to those around me, to bring life into their desert, and to bring hope, love, joy, and peace to my family, friends, and colleagues.