Deserts

God - you're my God! I can't get enough of you! I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts. So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory. In your generous love I am really living at last!
~ Psalm 63:1-3 (The Message)

The truth is that every life contains dry and weary deserts - places where we don't want to find ourselves but where God sometimes puts us for His own reasons and purposes. The reality though is that when we go into those deserts, we always have a choice; a choice to stop, set up camp, and just live there or to keep moving, putting one foot in front of the other and trusting God to lead us through. We can allow those moments to develop in us an increased passion for the Lord and an amazing trust in His sovereignty and purpose for our lives or we can choose to become angry and bitter at the circumstances He allows us to be in. This isn't an easy choice and I think it's often one you have to continually make over and over again through the desert.

However, I truly believe that when we allow the tough things of life to push us towards the Lord there is nothing better than that journey. It's the one thing that allows me to walk the paths in front of me and even find joy along the way. God is always what everything is all about - it's not about me, or my happiness, or my desires. It's all about God and the more I hang on to that, the more I realize that He is ever so much more than anything else that I could ever have or hope for. Now that's what I call real living!