discouragement – Josh Roberie

The Case for the Wilderness

3 Prayers for the Desert

Have you ever been in a dry season spiritually? Can you remember the last time you walked through what seemed to be a wilderness? Maybe you are in a similar situation now. If so, you are not alone.

Does God Lead Us To The Desert?

God lead the nation of Israel into the wilderness immediately after delivering them from Egypt. The desert was used to transform them from captives to conquerors.

The Spirit also led Jesus into the wilderness immediately after his baptism before his public ministry began.

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Matthew 4:1 ESV

Then there is this verse in Hosea.

“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there.”
– Hosea 2:14 NLT

Here we see God not only leads into the wilderness, but there is also the reward of Intimacy with Him there.

We should be careful not to ask God to take us out of somewhere He has led us into for His purposes. The wilderness seasons of life can cause us to feel alone and overlooked. These are not times when God had forgotten us but are when He has isolated from other things so we can focus on him.

The wilderness can be painful. We just want the desert to end. Here are three things I have learned to pray while in a spiritually dry season.

3 Prayers for the Desert

Ask God to show you what He would like you to learn

…instead of praying for Him to get you out of your circumstances.

I used to pray, “God, get me out!” When things got tough. Now, I know when I want to do this, it is always an alert God is up to something. Sometimes, the lesson is finding peace in waiting or redefining what success looks like. Other times God puts new tools in my hands I didn’t know I needed. It takes time to learn them before I can begin to see the benefits they can bring.

Ask God to draw you closer to Him and make you more like Him

…instead of praying for things to God back to the way they were.

It can appear there is not much good we can take from some seasons of life. Thank God those are so few. But even in the darkest times, we can take away some good. That is because, in everything, God is always bringing us closer to Him and making us more like Him. We need to be open to the process.

Ask God to prepare you for what he wants to give

…instead of asking why He has taken so much away.

Before God can provide us with what He wants us to have, we must be willing to make room by letting go of what we already have. The wilderness is the perfect place for this to happen.

The discomfort of the wilderness is mostly from detoxing even though we may feel like it is from a lack of something want. The desert causes us to lean on God in areas we have we have substituted with other things. The side effects of not having those things meet our needs on a surface level will soon be replaced by the satisfaction of allowing God to do a deeper work in us.

An Oasis in Every Desert

When life gets rough, we can still have some of the most tender moments with God. The intimacy that results from the wilderness is one of the main reasons we can always leave those seasons with gratitude.

There are other results from God leading us into the wilderness that can be found in Hosea as well.

“I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.”
Hosea 2:15 NLT

The wilderness is not about God sending harm our way to purify us or make us better. He is not the author of bad news but He can turn our bad news into good news when we put our trust in Him. The wilderness is a season where God intentionally allows our lives to be stripped down in a way that may make us uncomfortable at the moment, but if we press through with our eyes on Him, He will bring us through a transformation we can be thankful for as a result.

What are some lessons you have learned from the wilderness? What tips would you give a friend is you knew they were about to enter a desert season?

LIVING IN THE MIDDLE

Finding passion and purpose in the process.

by Elizabeth Demarest

A Smelly Mob

Hundreds of teenagers crowded the wooden altar. The mob smelled like typical teens in the 90’s – a blend of cheap cologne, Country Apple body spray, and the occasional stick of Teen Spirit deodorant.

I didn’t even care. I was wrecked, and I was ready. The presence of God poured over me like a waterfall, and all I could muster through hot and salty tears was a resounding, “YES.”

The next morning, my sixteen-year-old self was ready to seize the day. I was on mission – God gave me a Word, and I fully expected that to come with the authority, permission, and resources of my new title – CALLED. In the coming weeks, months, and even years however, I learned much too quickly, too painfully, that the fulfillment of that call was far from immediate.

The Furnace of His Process

I’m a visionary, a planner, so I blazed forward in the assumption that I could help God make my purpose transpire. I assumed my passion and fervor for Jesus were meant to unfold God’s plan for my life, and although I was radically wrong, the grace of God led me on a journey to placing that drive and ardor into the furnace of His process. Here I am, two decades later, waking up with willingness and embracing that four-letter word we all know and love: TIME.

Truth be told, anything significant requires time. Time can be painful. It can cost us something, if not everything (2 Samuel 24:34). It takes a heart of surrender to wait and to be content in the waiting. God reminds us in Genesis 8:22 that “there is no shortcut from seed time to harvest” (Genesis 8:22). Our time in the middle, from birth to death, from call to completion – every season in between contributes to our growth and God’s perfect plan for us (Isaiah 25:1).

[In the middle] of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus. Never restrain or put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. And don’t be one who scorns prophecies.
1 Thessalonians 5:18-20a

We can easily scorn the prophecies of God by living in frustration and despair rather than walking in faith and trust. Many times, I’ve been so focused on the future that I didn’t even get to experience and enjoy the present. I’ve had to intentionally choose to let God orchestrate events and unfold promises in His timing so that I don’t “restrain or put out the fire of the Holy Spirit.”

Content in the Middle

And let’s get real – the culture we live in does not promote the lifestyle of being content in the middle. I recently saw a quote that read, “Don’t let the Internet rush you. No one is posting their failures.” Our culture does not celebrate the middle; it does not endorse the beauty of the process. Society loves to highlight the mountaintop in all of its Photo-shopped glory, and it’s hard not to cringe with discouragement when picture-perfect montages mock our unanswered prayers.

God is fully aware of how destructive comparison is and calls us to “examine [our] own work, and then [we] will have reason for boasting in regard to [ourselves] alone, and not in regard to another” (Galatians 6:4). Albeit, social media may make that difficult, but it’s why we have to cling to the truth of the Word rather than the lies of comparison.

Don’t Hurry God

If I could go back and change anything, it would be my posture while I was waiting. I’ve spent many seasons longing for God to hurry up with my destiny. How naïve of me to think that the God who loves me so much would skip the process of which my calling depends so much on. God was always more interested, and still is, in the development of my character, my walk with Him, and the internal work that no one sees. In fact, I am writing from a place where many of my inner victories are tucked away in the secret place. Man can’t see them, but God knows every intricate detail of my process. I am not forgotten or hidden from His sight.

Finding Purpose and Passion in the Middle

Have you grown impatient while waiting for the promise? Take heart, for it is not in God’s nature to break a promise. It is not in His nature to withhold good from His children (Psalm 84:11). Learn to hand your feelings over to God in exchange for His truth – that He is good, His timing is perfect, and His promises never fail.

It’s in that exchange where you will learn to live passionately in the middle, to live on purpose in the middle.

It may just be the most significant thing you ever do.

Elizabeth Demarest lives in the Dallas area and is a member of
Gateway church, serving alongside side her husband Aley and their three children

Elizabeth Demarest grew up in the Amazon Rainforest as a third-generation missionary. Her mission now is to speak life and healing and purity to young women, including those whose trust has been violated. She addresses her induction into this involuntary sisterhood in her book, Amazon Girl: Dare to Dream. Also, in her second book, Kissing Toads: A Christian Girl’s Guide to Dating and Falling in Love, Elizabeth gives practical tips on how to date well, encouraging girls to choose purity–against the cultural norm –believing that every girl can have their fairytale. Find out more at elizabethdemarest.com.

Acres of Hope

Finding Hope in the Midst of Heartache

by Amy Roberie

It’s August 2012, and it seems as if my worst fears have materialized. Homeless. Jobless. Sickness. Loneliness. Loss. Heartbreak. All of these words are accurate descriptions of my new life. We made a major change and left our ministry positions, and all that went along with them. In many ways we were on “top of our game.” This decision would be one that few people in the world we left behind understood and many on the outside couldn’t identify with.

A Valley of Heartache

Homeless – We lived with my parents and leased our house to tenants so that we could keep paying our mortgage.

Jobless – We planned to move and go immediately into another ministry role in a new city. After wise counsel, we decided to spend a season outside of vocational ministry to detox, rest, process, and heal. We made this decision a few months after our transition. By this time, we had spent our savings. This meant moving in with my parents and Josh just taking whatever job he could to bring some money in. This season turned into two years, and I spent those two years at home, something I had not done up to this point in our married life.

Sickness – During this same time, my Dad was diagnosed with cancer and died less than six months later. I held his right hand, my Mom held his left, and my Aunt Cathleen talked of Jesus as he took his last breath on earth.

Loneliness – Every relationship we had revolved around one place and one group of people. It felt like I moved to a remote, foreign country that was separated from civilization by oceans and 15+ hour plane rides. There was no internet or phone service in this new country. In reality, I was down the street. My address changed, but I was in the same city with the same phone number just fewer texts and calls.

Loss – I think in one way or another, we lost everything. At best everything changed, but mostly there was loss. Loss of friends and relationships. Loss of home. Loss of security. Loss of position. Loss of identity.

My heart was broken in this season in what felt like every way. No area of life was spared. It was in the midst of this heartbreak that Lamentations 3 became my daily anthem. It both reflected my current heart ache and loss and also shined a glimmer of light on what seemed like an endless night.

“The thought of my suffering and homelessness
    is bitter beyond words.
I will never forget this awful time,
    as I grieve over my loss.
Yet I still dare to hope
    when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
    therefore, I will hope in him!”
Lamentations 3:19-24 NLT

Dare to Hope

“Yet I still dare to hope….” I sat at the kitchen counter of my Mom’s house with Daniel Tiger playing in the background keeping 19-month-old Sophie entertained and wept. Hot tears streamed down my face as I read it again and again. Suffering and homelessness, bitterness, grief and loss, every word summed up my current state. “Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this.”

My tears were still flowing, but a warmth began to fill my heart. God was still faithful. Even when I’ve lost everything, He is faithful. I decided that morning that the Lord would indeed by my inheritance and that I would hope in him. Even if my situation did not change, I had an eternal inheritance in the Lord and nothing and no person could change that. Everyone and everything could go wrong and let me down, but God is faithful, and because He is faithful, I can place my hope in him.

Before this, hope was foreign to me. There were two common words in the “Christian Language” that I was somehow not literate in – hope and grace. This was the beginning of my journey with hope. Hope means – to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence; to believe, desire, or trust.

My hope in God and God alone meant my desire was Him. My confidence was in Him. My trust was in Him. I didn’t need a home or a job or people or any circumstance to change. I only needed Him. In fact, I learned that my heartache had become the catalyst for me discovering hope and ultimately discovering God and His nature in a whole new way. As Hosea puts it, my trouble became my gateway to experiencing hope.

“But then I will win her back once again.
    I will lead her into the desert
    and speak tenderly to her there.
I will return her vineyards to her
    and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.“
Hosea 2:14-15

The Message paraphrase says, “I will turn heartbreak valley into acres of hope.” Today, I pray that whatever you are facing that the very heartbreak that should otherwise destroy you will become a gateway for you to walk into a spacious and wide-open acres of hope.