God assigns fulfilling tasks in every season.
We’ve all probably endured what some refer to as wilderness seasons—those times in life when we feel stuck or like we’ve lost our sense of direction and purpose. I’ve landed in that discouraging place more than once, sometimes due to disobedience, and others while trying to pursue God’s lead. While the former created the most inner angst, neither scenario felt comfortable. Both, however, increased my longing for and pursuit of God, thereby resulting in spiritual growth and transformation I doubt I would’ve experienced otherwise. This reminds me of our Father’s faithful heart. In every encounter, disappointment, and delay, we can trust He’s always orchestrating His good and hope-filled plans for us.
Here are four faith-building truths for when we find ourselves trekking across a seemingly barren landscape:
1. God Won’t Waste Our Gifts, Frustrations, or Pain
I first sensed God calling me to speak and write while home-educating our daughter. Although I loved our time together, I also found myself wanting to hurry her lessons along to free my afternoons to work on articles or novels. I assumed that once I enrolled her in a local school, a publishing career would soon follow. Instead, I spent years accumulating rejections. Then, once agents and editors finally started reviewing my work, an unexpected illness halted my plans once again.
I felt overlooked and forgotten by God. But then I remembered His faithfulness to use all things—our gifts and experiences—for our good and His glory. Although we may not understand His timing or the next steps in His plan, we can trust He is leading us to a hope-filled, fruitful destination. Scripture tells us of a time when, after He’d miraculously fed thousands, the Lord instructed His disciples to gather the pieces of leftover bread so that nothing would be wasted. He places even more value on us, the children formed by His hand. Can we not, therefore, expect Him to utilize everything, including ourselves, that we yield to Him?
2. God Trains Us Today for Tomorrow’s Success
In Scripture, we see how God used wilderness seasons to purify hearts, build perseverance, and deepen the person’s intimacy with Him in preparation for the glorious assignments ahead. David, ancient Israel’s second king, is one of my favorite examples. When we first encounter him, he’s a humble shepherd tending to his father’s sheep. One day, the most prominent prophet in Israel visits David’s home and invites his family for a sacrifice. This would’ve been like having Francis Chan or Jennie Allen arrive on your doorstep with a dinner invitation.
If this occurred, most of us would expect our parents to summon us for the meal. But that wasn’t how David’s father responded. Everyone in his household, it seemed, forgot or discounted him.
That’s often how one feels in wilderness seasons. But with God, we are never “out of sight, out of mind” or crossed off His agenda. Instead, He uses every experience, the difficult, exciting, and mundane, to lovingly mold and strengthen us for history-making assignments.
If we continue in David’s story, we learn God used his time as a young shepherd to build the courage and skill that enabled him to stand against and defeat a massive Philistine warrior.
Sometimes, God allows us to land in wilderness places to reveal and purge us of pride and ways we’ve tried to define ourselves apart from who we are in Christ and to Christ. This is one of the reasons these seasons can feel so painful. Often, they are when a circumstance or an individual has removed us from a role in which we’d begun to place our identity. This often leads to increased insecurity, which in turn hinders our obedience to Christ.
In other instances, we might feel as if someone, or something, is keeping an important opportunity from us. In reality, the Lord may be withholding something that, if received, would get in the way of all He has planned for us.
3. God Uses the Wilderness to Deepen Our Relationship with Him
Reflect upon times when you’ve experienced significant hunger. When you finally sat down to eat, did you notice that your food tasted particularly delicious? Or how refreshing an iced lemonade feels after a hard workout or long, hot mid-afternoon hike? Have you ever been so dehydrated that you experienced thirst in your entire body?
This was the type of craving David felt for God while hiding in the desert of Judah. Looking out upon the rugged landscape, he wrote, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
In those times when we’ve lost our sense of purpose and direction, our desire to experience God’s presence intensifies. No longer is prayer simply a task written on our to-do list. That soul-deep connection with Christ feels as necessary as a fresh, bubbling stream to a mountain climber who’s lost his way.
4. God Assigns Fulfilling Tasks in Every Season
Considering David’s journey once again, I’m reminded that God is always inviting us to engage with His mission, whether that means teaching energetic first graders, faithfully praying for missionaries, or comforting a hurting friend. Or, as was the case with David, leading a band of fugitives—individuals many people had probably discounted. But the Lord brought nearly 600 men to David so they could learn how to live in a way that honored Him.
I’m particularly struck by the example David set in 1 Samuel 24. He and his crew hid in the wilderness while, “Day after Day Saul searched for him” (1 Samuel 23:14). He, for a time, halted his hunt to pursue the Philistines, the enemies of the Israelites. But once he returned, having received intel on David’s location, he gathered “3,000 able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the crags of the Wild Goats” (1 Samuel 24:2, NIV). In other words, Saul gathered a small army to pursue David and his band.
How might you have felt in that situation? Would you have become overwhelmed and terrified? Enraged by the injustice of it all? Would you have been tempted to declare defeat—to reject your divine call? What if, in the middle of this long, painful season, someone urged you to force your way forward?
As Carol McCracken and I discuss in a recent Faith Over Fear podcast episode, this was the dilemma David faced. One day, his pursuer entered the very cave in which he and his men hid. Needing to “relieve” himself, he likely came alone, without weapons or military protection. He was completely vulnerable, unsuspecting, and distracted by his business. Convinced this was a divinely orchestrated moment, David’s men urged him to “deal with [Saul]” as he saw fit. But while David did creep close and cut off a section of Saul’s robe, he regretted this and responded, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him, for he is the anointed of the Lord” (1 Samuel 24:6, NIV).
In this, David demonstrated how to trust in and rely upon God in painful circumstances, even when human logic urged him to do otherwise. Can you imagine the impact this must’ve had on his men? God used David to reveal what a heart set on Him looked like and the power and protection that came to those who sought refuge in Him.
Most of us probably don’t have such a band of individuals gathered around us, but others are watching us just the same. Often, we preach the clearest not from a pulpit or podcast but through the quiet determination to remain faithful in vividly fruitful and seemingly barren places. God does and will use both to draw people to Himself and grow us in the process.
As we trudge over barren hills and desert sands, may we find strength and encouragement in our faithful, ever-present Father, the One who has and is molding us into His masterpieces, by His will and for His will. As we focus on the race before us, may we also remain alert to and ready for the divine appointments He’s orchestrating along the way. We can trust that our steps and our struggles are never without purpose.
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Givaga
Jennifer Slattery is a writer and speaker who co-hosts the Faith Over Fear podcast and, along with a team of 6, the Your Daily Bible Verse podcast. She’s addressed women’s groups, Bible studies, and taught at writers conferences across the nation. She’s the author of Building a Family and numerous other titles and maintains a devotional blog at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLou
She’s passionate about helping people experience Christ’s freedom in all areas of their lives. Visit her online to learn more about her speaking or to book her for your next women’s event, and sign up for her free quarterly newsletter HERE and make sure to connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and GodTube.
