Journey through the desert

Hosea 2 :14

"I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her".

God established a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17: 1-9) and his descendants. "I will be your God and you must keep my covenant." God has promised his covenant love to his people. The Hebrew word "hesed" describes this love which includes loving-kindness, steadfastness, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. As we know God remains faithful to his covenant love while his people are unfortunately not always faithful. It was at such a time that God, acting out of his covenant love spoke through the prophet Hosea to his people....who had once again been unfaithful.....

The desert is an important metaphor describing certain parts of our spiritual journey. Why would God allure us into a spiritual desert? What response does he seek from us? One of the reasons, I believe is his desire to bring us in touch with our deepest longings and greatest thirsts. Years ago, I learned how to hunger and thirst for God after spending some time in an emotional and spiritual desert. It came on gradually. There were signs of unease in my life, but I could not put my finger on why. Things were seemingly going well on the outside: financially stable, in good health and yet there was a restlessness. This was detected by my husband who asked me why I was "not at peace" even though things were going well. Then I borrowed a recording of a talk given at a ladies retreat. It was entitled "Transformed". The speaker spoke about being transformed from the inside out, about God often having to deal with the "stuff" inside us in order for us to experience deep transformation. The message spoke directly to my heart: there were past issues in my life that I had not dealt with. I knew that I had "back-slided" in my Christian life and that simply being a Sunday Christian was not enough. I had just breezed on with life without realizing that these issues had an impact on how I was relating to God and to others. Things could not move further unless I took time out and dealt with them. By God's grace, this happened when I started working part time This gave me the time to work through many unresolved issues, including the death of my parents (within months of each other) ten years before then. It was not a comfortable process as I faced my real thirst. My emotions and spirit were challenged having to face parts of myself that I would rather have hidden from. Yet it made sense to persevere because I came to the conclusion that only God could and would walk me through.

Desert time strips us of securities that leave us out of touch with our thirst for God. Most of us first respond to Christ because of a deep thirst in our hearts that only he can fill. And yet, as we move along in the Christian life, we are seduced into thinking that performance or other securities make our lives work. "They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jer. 2: 13). Sometimes, God has to stop us in our tracks in order to get our attention. In my experience it is a grace to be led into the desert and 'spoken to tenderly', called to my heart's true home. God did so because his love for me would not let me go. And I am immensely thankful that he pursued me even though I was the one running away from him. I journey on with the prayer that I will continue to drink daily from the fresh spring of living water offered by Christ.