Impact and InfluenceSample

Wide Open Spaces

For 40 years, the Israelites traveled through the wilderness, but it was not an aimless pilgrimage. As they were traveling through an uncultivated land, God was using that experience to cultivate them—to teach them, to humble them, to show them unknown things. For all of the obvious reasons, the wilderness wasn’t an ideal situation, but they came out of it with more than they went into it with. And that counts for everything.

At many points throughout life, you will find yourself navigating challenging spaces just like the Israelites. When you do, know that you’re in for a treat. That treat is being in a wide open space with nothing but room to receive a refined heart and deeper intimacy with God. It makes the wilderness worth it.

Before there can be a treat, though, there is a time of heart-work. The wilderness is always conducive to the revealing of the heart and the refining of the heart. When God wants to humble and test us in order to know what’s in our heart, his method for doing so is often leading us away from what’s comfortable and familiar, into what’s foreign and uncertain. On the surface, that doesn’t sound so exciting, but if you look a little deeper, you will begin to see that these environments are necessary for your development and they offer the opportunity for you to grow more aware of God’s proximity (closeness) to you.

In your humanity, time in the wilderness can feel like obscurity, uncertainty, failure, and sometimes even death. But, the wilderness is really a win! When you understand God’s way, you’ll come to know that your time in the wild is a time that brings you into order, balance, and harmony with God.

Prayer: Dear God, today, I command myself to believe that the same way You were with the Israelites, you will be with me, too, when I am in the wilderness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.