Scripture: Exodus 13:17-22, Isaiah 43:18-20
Exodus 13:18 – But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 43:19 – Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
A wilderness is an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. It is a neglected or abandoned area of a garden or town; a position of disfavor.
Don’t you worry. That season is over! Get ready to walk in favor, get ready to move into a new region. Your wilderness days have expired!
Your wilderness experience is to test you, humble you, quiet you and get you to focus on yourself. There are two lessons to learn in order to come out of your wilderness.
1. Don’t dwell on the past!
God will make a way when there seems to be no way! Sometimes we feel trapped in a situation with no easy or good solutions out of it. This is when we must depend on God and claim the truth of His promise (Isaiah 43:18, 19).
2. Trust God’s path!
Just because God isn’t doing what we want Him to do, it doesn’t mean He isn’t working. God promises to make a path, a road so you and I can follow Him out of the wilderness.
God can do the impossible and extremely difficult things. What God is about to do will be even more wonderful than what He did before! Sometimes God provides us a way out, other times He provides strength to endure. Either way, He provides.
Psalm 92:12 says that the righteous will flourish like a palm tree. The reason God said we’d flourish like a palm tree is that God knew we would go through difficult times. When we go through the wilderness, we will come out stronger than before.
Bishop Jonathan J. Young, DMin., is the executive pastor of Miracle Temple Church of God Pentecostal in Inglewood, California.