Wilderness Experience

Let’s talk about something, I believe is very important. 

Let me start by reading a few of my journal entries over the past month.

Good morning Lord!  Patience version 2!  Learning to wait patiently on You.  Thank you for the lessons on how to patiently wait upon you.  I have no choice, because there is nowhere else to go.  My faith is in you.  Help me stay on tract and continue learning and growing in the spirit. 

Another Day

Good morning Lord!  It’s always time to praise you.  Each day I set here believing you Lord, that you have blessed the working of my hands.  Lord, bring me through the valley, through the water, pass through the river.  As Habakkuk said, though the fields produce no crop, there is no cattle in the stalls, everything around me may seem bleak; yet, will I praise you.

Another Day

Good morning Lord!  Help me understand why at times there seems to be silence from you?  Lord, I talk and I talk and I seem to not be hearing from You.  I know I have your Word, and I trust and believe it.  But, Lord, sometimes, I need to feel, experience your presence in my life. 

Have you ever felt that way before? were you don’t feel God’s presence in your life?  You feel confused and question, “where are you Lord?  This morning, I felt out of sync. I felt lost and confused… “I asked, where are you Lord? I don’t feel your presence in my life.”  I’ve been praying, reading my Bible, doing the Christian thing, trying to move forward and grow spiritually.  But, Lord I seem to be in a dry place, a valley.  I don’t seem to sense your presence in my life.  Especially, when times seem hard and difficult. The Lord simply brought to my mind “wilderness”!  I said, “Lord, help me understand!”

The Lord then opened my understanding of feelings of being in the wilderness. As we journey through this Christian walk, we will have moments of joy, moments of happiness, moments of victory, and feel like we can move mountains because the Lord is with us. Then there are times we face sorrow, trouble, sadness, burdens, trials and tribulations.  Periods, where we feel we have to overcome one hurdle after another.  We feel hard pressed to keep walking in faith.

The thing about both the pleasant times, moments of victory and joy, and the times we are faced with the trials and tribulations of life, we feel engaged. A sense of being involved, stimulated and motivated.  We feel our faith being activate, and are actively involved. We are either basking in our victory in the presence of the Lord, or in times of trials and tribulations, we rely upon the Lord’s strength, trusting He will bring us through it.

But! What about those times, when there’s just silence, stillness?  No trials or tribulations in your life.  No victories or overcoming to revel in.  Just the feeling of still and quietness.  Nothing engaging you, and you don’t feel the presence of the Lord. You begin feeling lift alone, cut off, and even deserted.  You don’t feel the presence of the Lord. 

I’m go out on a limb here, and say, I’m not alone, sometimes feeling the Lord’s silence in my life, and how it gnaws at me. I’m sure, many of you can probably recall moments in your life when you felt the same way or you might be in a season of silence right now.

These are what we will call “wilderness experiences”. When thinking of ‘wilderness experience’ what normally comes to my mind is a barren place; a place of solitude. It is a place where we presume God’s absence in our lives.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

Do you know who is speaking these words? It’s King David Psalm 22 – the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). King David knew the Lord intimately, but at some points in his life, he felt cut off from the Lord.  He felt the absence of God in his life. He felt deserted.  He felt silence!

How about the prophet Habakkuk? “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?” Hab. 1:2

What about Job 31:35: Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, 

Psalms 13:1: How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

Psalms. 22:2: I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.