Breakfast With Christ - Surviving The Wilderness (Part 1)
BREAKFAST WITH CHRIST
TOPIC: SURVIVING THE WILDERNESS(part 1)
SCRIPTURE: EXODUS 13:18
"So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the red sea..."
According to dictionary.com, a wilderness is "a wild and uncultivated region, as of forest or desert, uninhabited or inhabited only by wild animals; a tract of wasteland". This definition by itself paints a very scary picture of what a wilderness is. Every Christian once in a while goes through the wilderness of life. Metaphorically,wilderness represents a difficult or a deadly situation.
Some of us might also be going through our own wilderness now. It might be the wilderness of sickness or wilderness of family troubles or wilderness of unemployment or wilderness of broken relationships. Whatever it might be, being in the wilderness can be very uncomfortable. Sometimes it gets so difficult that many people perish in their wilderness or even give up on God in the wilderness.
There might be different reasons why most of us end up in the wilderness. It might be through disobedience, carelessness or through some serious mistakes from us. But as Christians, many of the wilderness experience we go through are surprisingly ordained by God himself.
In our biblical text for today, we saw that God led the Israelites though the wilderness when they were escpaing from the Egyptian army. God could have easily led them through different routes but He chose to take them through the wilderness. Similarly, after Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, the Bible said Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness(John 4:1). We will get to understand later why God will intentionally take us through the wilderness.
But one thing we need to understand is that even when we are going through the wilderness, God is still with us. The Bible said in Exodus 13:21 that God led the Israelites by pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. So even though the Israelites were passing through the wilderness, God didn't abandon them.
Child of God, no matter the difficulties, God is still with you. He hasn't abandoned you. Your wilderness doesn't scare God. If God was able to provide manner for the Israelites in the wilderness, He will equally take care of you today no matter your circumstances. God loves us, He will never forsake us.
In our next BWC we will look at how we can survive the wilderness and come out stronger. Stay blessed!
Prayer line:
Father, I thank you for how far you've brought me. No matter what I am facing today, I give you the glory. Please give me the strength to endure the challenges I face. Amen
Further Scripture Reading
John 4:1
Exodus 13:1-22