Benefits of the Wilderness

When did you last feel that God had you in the wilderness?  Do you like it?  I don’t, but I am learning that being in the wilderness has its benefits.  For the last several months I have felt that I’ve been in the wilderness.  I describe it as boredom.  I am bored with EVERYTHING.  It feels like I don’t have anything to do, yet there is nothing I feel like doing.  Who can relate?

Yesterday, however, I got a lesson in the benefit of wilderness seasons.

Yesterday was my daughter’s 28th birthday.  My daughter loves books and we had learned of a unique bookstore in German Village in Columbus, OH consisting of 32 ROOMS!  This could be paradise for my daughter and myself as I, too, love a good bookstore.  So off we went to find and experience The Book Loft.

Imagine traversing narrow rooms each filled with thousands of books.  The Book Loft is three stories with winding stairs and twists and turns as you explore each room. This bookstore is so filled with books that a shopping basket and a map greet you at the door!

After leaving the bookstore we went north to the mall where we ate at one of our favorite places, B.J.’s Tavern.  While the menu must about 75 options, they are famous for pizookies.  A pizookie is a large cookie served in a deep-dish pizza pan and topped with ice cream.  There are all kinds of flavors.  After lunch we went into the Polaris mall.  Now I have not been in a mall in years!  I used to love to shop the mall during Christmas, but in recent years online shopping has become my preferred method.  Yesterday’s mall experience confirmed my distaste for malls.

On the drive home I had time to reflect on the day.  These are some of the things God revealed to me.

We Have Too Much Excess

By the end of the day, the activities had exhausted and overstimulated me. We, in the United States, have too much stuff!  Yesterday’s shopping experience brought home the fact that there are simply too many choices on any given day.  In The Book Loft there were too many books and too many rooms to even process the choices.  Even when we arrived in the room with the genre of books we were looking for (and remember we needed a map to even find the right room), the choices aligning the shelves were overwhelming.  So much so that I didn’t take a single book off the shelves.  

At lunch, the server gave us a menu with too many choices (not to mention the portion sizes at most restaurants these days). I had to make the choice to skip looking at entire portions of the menu in order to make a decision.  And the mall.  All I am going to say it that I HATED being in the mall, inundated at every turn with products I don’t need and people accosting me as I walk the aisle trying to sell me something I don’t want.  I looked at probably tens of thousands of products on shelves throughout the mall that, in my life, had no purpose.  I had to wonder how some of these stores stay in business.

We Are In a Battle

As believers in Jesus we know we have an enemy who wants to destroy us.  Scripture tells us he roams around like a lion just waiting to kill. (1 Peter 5:8). Satan would like nothing better than to distract us from the purpose God has for our lives.  This became crystal clear to me yesterday.  There is so much vying for our attention that we need to be diligent about keeping our eye on what matters—the truth we find in Christ.

Let your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

Ponder the path of your feet;

then all your ways will be sure.

Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.

(Proverbs 4:25-27)

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

(Colossians 3:2)

God’s Purpose Not the World’s

The world will tell you the way to success is the path of more.  More stuff, more information, more things on your to do list.  Just MORE.  God tells us we are successful when we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior (John 6:29), when we love Him and others (Mark 12:30-31), and follow Him faithfully. (Matthew 25:23)  We must also remember that God does not look at us the way the world looks at us.  While the world looks at our outward appearance, God looks at our hearts. (1 Samuel 16:7)

Ladies, we are in a battle.  As a believer in Christ you have a mission to share the light and truth of Jesus Christ with a noisy, overindulgent and dark world. (Matthew 5:14-16) This battle has never been more evident to me than it was yesterday. I know God has called me to be that light and share the TRUTH in a world that sees those lies as truth. I now see that what I viewed as a boring, mundane wilderness life has been a time where Jesus was preparing me for the battle.  Yesterday He showed me just what the battlefield looks like and ignited a fire in me to armor up (Ephesians 6:10-20), step onto the battlefield and shine the light of TRUTH.

Rise Up

Dear Sisters, who is with me?  I know this is not an easy battle to fight and that is why Immortal Jellyfish Creations exists.  I want to help you as you step into your own call.  One way to do that is grounding yourself in God’s Word and I have free resource to help you do that. Grab your FREE themed monthly scripture plan HERE