Midweek Moment: October 28, 2020
This week, in our Emotionally Healthy Spirituality small groups and in our Sunday service, we talked about what it’s like to feel as though we are in the wilderness. When it seems as though God is far away or when you just don’t know when this hard season will end. I had a sense that for many of us, these last seven months may have felt like a desert. A relational desert with our increased isolation, an emotional desert with extra layers of anxiety, or perhaps a spiritual desert as you feel far from God?
The idea of wilderness is not foreign to the Bible. Abraham set out from his father’s house into the wilderness, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, and Jesus himself went to the wilderness after his baptism. In fact, as Ben reminded us on Sunday, it’s something very normal and while not prescriptive, it’s something that many Christians may experience in their lifetime.
What it might look like, in a season of wilderness, to experience God? I imagine it might feel as though we have stumbled onto an oasis. An oasis is a place in the desert where water comes up from deep underground. Trees and other plants grow up around the water and animals come to eat the plants and seek. It’s a place of refreshing and renewal, smack dab in the middle of the desert.
In the book of John, Jesus says, “Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life”. This living water is available to us today. Jesus is present to us through the Holy Spirit; He longs to pour out his living water so that we might be refreshed, restored, and renewed. Even in the midst of the desert. Even in the midst of the wilderness. He is our oasis.
Today, find a moment to talk with God. Tell Him exactly where you are and what you are experiencing; And ask Him to give you the “gushing fountains of endless life”. Ask Him to be an oasis for you.
Blessings,
Katie
P.S. Perhaps you aren’t in the midst of the wilderness. But, I suspect you know someone who feels as though they are wandering with no end in sight. How can you, empowered by the Holy Spirit, be an encouragement (and an oasis of sorts!) to them this week? How can you tangibly remind them of God’s love and that they are not alone?