Spiritual WildernessShembull

Back in the days when I was in school, every time the teacher gave us a test, there was silence. Before the test, the teacher would teach but during the test the teacher was silent. The teacher’s silence didn’t mean that the teacher was absent - I was taking a test. I was tempted to raise my hand and ask about a question that was on the test, but I knew the teacher wouldn’t give me any answers. Why? Because I was the one taking the test. When we are not being tested, we can ask any question and get an answer, but during the test, there is silence from the teacher. 

Spiritual dryness usually is accompanied by this sort of silence from God. When God is silent in your life, that might mean you’re taking a test. 

God’s silence is not God’s absence. It means that we are being tested. One of the things we had to do in school whenever we took a test was to remember what the teacher had taught us before the test. Remembering is the same principle at work in a spiritual wilderness. So often during our dry times, we tend to remember the things we should forget and forget the things we should remember. 

Like students, we have to remember what God has said and done to get us through this test. In our minds we must build memorials to His miracles; but instead, some of us build monuments to our mistakes. That’s why we are flunking our test in the wilderness. 

Great faith in dry times is really found in having a good memory of God’s past faithfulness and God’s promises. David overcame Goliath by remembering God’s faithfulness when he encountered the bear and the lion. Jesus overcame the devil in the wilderness by quoting the Scriptures that He remembered.