Tough Faith for Hard Times

The deserts of our lives are not pleasant pilgrimages that we journey through at leisure. Most often when we think of a desert, we think of a place that is inhospitable, harsh and fraught with hardship, and the potential of danger. A desert exists geologically as a place where nothing useful grows to sustain life. A few animals can survive there, but for humans, it is a place to avoid, not head toward.

Personal Life Deserts are harsh emotional wastelands, void of vital resources when needed, and have the capacity to break our spirit. In Scripture, many times, the use of the word desert, wilderness, wasteland or dry land is interchangeable. Deserts are places that you travel through, when you have no other way to get to where you need to be. Deserts are real, and they are, tough places to traverse. In a symbolical sense, they illustrate those hard, seemingly unprofitable times when our lives are stymied, on hold, or we are spiritually as dry as a mummy’s breath. 

As a shepherd and soldier, David spent a lot of time in the dry wildernesses of Judah. He often found the need to flee to the desert during times of threat and personal crisis. When he served under King Saul and was suspicious of treachery, David fled to where he had the best chance to find a hiding place. 

In the Desert of Ziph

“David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.” 1 Samuel 23:14

In the Desert Of Edom

On one of David’s many forays into the wilderness, he was being pursued by his son Absalom, and his life was in peril. David went into the desert to find a safe haven, and discovered that amidst the turmoil, hardship and deprivation, his longing for God became an intense and insatiable reality. Deserts have a way of separating us from our natural comforts, and they strip us of the barest of life’s essentials.

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”  Psalm 42:2 
 

In the desert, God can speak to us in ways that He can in no other place. Be it under a mound of unresolved problems, painful discouraging long term health issues, a broken marriage, years of depression, or seasons of dissatisfying spiritual dryness, the desert creates a pilgrimage process, that has but one purpose: to lead us into a deeper life with God.

The Desert Creates a Thirst for God

After days of wandering in the barren wilderness, David trekked deep into the wasteland of the Valley of Baca. The interpretation of Baca (bacah) in the Hebrew could be translated, “The valley of weeping.” It was a dry lonely desolate place. As life became more desperate for David, his heart began to thirst for God. 

“How lovely (Beloved) is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Psalm 84:1

This was not a muffled sob coming from David but a shrill longing cry from an anguished heart. The word that is here rendered cry, is from the Hebrew, that signifies to shout, or cry out with great emotion, as soldiers do at the beginning of a battle. 

While in the wilderness, with every labored step, he was longing for and crying out to be near to God.

“Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar.” Psalm 84:3

The reawakening of spiritual thirst happens in the midst of adversity, not because of adversity. Trials will not produce revival within our hearts, neither will correct moral responses or behavior. It is as we draw near to God, that He draws near to us. In that synergistic moment we are touched by God and we are changed, and are never the same.

“ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  James 4:8

The Desert Ignites a Need to Praise God

There is something profoundly powerful and deeply moving, when our heart reaches up to praise God in the darkest night in our personal desert. When God hears the heart inspired praises of a Christian in the desert, it pleases Him for it is the epitome of trusting faith.

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  I Thessalonians 5:18

When David feigned madness before King Abimelech, and he hid in the dark lonely desert caves at Adullam, he wrote Psalm 34, with a key emphasis on praising God in the midst of adversity.  (See I Samuel 22:1-2; Psalm 142:4-7)

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Psalm 34:1

 

That is why David was so moved to praise God in the desert valley of Baca, because he recognized that wherever he was, God was there with Him. In the desert he began to recognize that the God of the Burning Bush, had become the God of the Burning Heart.

“O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah” Psalm 84:3b-4

The Desert Stirs is a Hunger to Know God

 
While Paul was in prison, he had but one aspiration, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Philippians 3:10

Tough times stir the heart to become bitter and disheartened, or they stir the heart to a hunger to know God more deeply. For David, the journey through the Valley of Baca, could only be done with the strength of God. Spiritual strength came in the midst of the valley as he passed through it, not before he entered it. 

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.” The natural heart is a pathless wilderness, full of cliffs and precipices. When the heart is renewed by grace, a road is made, a highway is prepared for our God." Frederick Fysh

 “As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.”  Psalm 84:5-7

The Desert Awakens the Heart to Worship God

There is no more comforting a place than on our knees worshiping God before the Throne of Grace. Everything else fades into silence while our heartbeat harmonizes with His Heartbeat, our purpose aligns with His purpose, and our will responds in obedience to His will. That most often happens in the midnight of our own Gethsemane.

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the Throne of Grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
 

In the desert David was humbled by the majesty of God, and he experienced His presence while in the isolated barrenness of the desert. As he experienced the presence of God, and renewed his absolute trust in God, he could only bow his head and pray,

“Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.  Selah Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. (Beloved) O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.” Psalm 84:8-12

Thirst   Praise   Know   Worship

The more we Thirst for God, the more we will begin to Praise Him, and the more we Praise Him, the more we will hunger to Know Him, and the more we get to know Him, the more we long to Worship Him.

When you are in the desert remember that you are not alone...He is there, and it is not your strength that will get you through it but His. 

Take a few moments and reflect upon the meaningful and encouraging message in this song, "Find you on m Knees" by Kari Jobe

When There is no Miracle

In life, there are simply times when no matter how hard we pray, how long we choose to fast, or even how many other faithful friends steadfastly intercede on our behalf, life's circumstances may not change or even get better. In fact, to our dismay, they might even get worse. 

Miracles do not always happen that change our circumstances, no matter how much faith we may have. In fact, the Scriptures teach us that when there is no miracle, that does not mean that God does not have a plan. The Bible also teaches us that having our own way, may not always be a good thing, in fact, it can even lead to disaster and heartache (See Numbers 11; Psalm 106:15).

Our request for a miraculous change in our circumstances may sometimes not be granted. Some stubbornly refuse to let go of a request for God to intervene and heal or deliver a loved one from a tragic set of circumstances. Over time, when there is no miracle one can become disillusioned regarding God's faithfulness and mercy.  The real miracle that God desires is a completely yielded heart, trusting Him regardless, that He might be glorified however the situation turns out. 

The Prayer life of Jesus

Jesus spent much time alone so that He could pray to His Father and commune with Him in The Quiet Place.  His prayer life provides us with a model for our own personal worship time with God. It also provides insight into how He lived His earthly ministry under God the Father's Sovereignty.

He made Time for The Quiet Place

“After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone.”   Matthew 14:23

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.”  Mark 1:35

“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”  Luke 6:12

“Yet the news about Him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”  Luke 5:15-16

His Priority for The Quiet Place

It is insightful that no matter how busy and exhausted Jesus became, He always found time to go to The Quiet Place to meet with His Father.

The time or place was not significant. He found the time and He made a place. What an encouraging example this is for each of us to make time for The Quiet Place no matter what is happening in our lives. We can sometimes be tempted to say, "I just haven't had time to pray about it." Really....or is it rather that we have just not made it a priority to pray about it.

Surrendering our Will to God

The Lord wanted his disciples to really grasp the reality that life for them as His followers was not about maneuvering God’s will to fit their plans, but rather submitting to God’s Sovereign authority to discover how to live under His plan. 

He taught them what to center their prayers upon, so as to prepare them for serving God in the troublesome days that were soon to come.

 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”  Matthew 6:9-13

They would later become Apostles who would wield miraculous power and authority, as the New Testament Church was established. They all would suffer extreme hardship and persecution, and most would be tortured, and die as martyr's, refusing to deny Him. Their present plan had to give way to His perfect plan.

"Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”Matt. 6:9b -10

There is a critical step in this model prayer that directs us to humble ourselves and bow the knee in reverential submission to the Sovereign will of our Heavenly Father. The will of the King is to reign in His Kingdom.

God's Will must Reign over Our Will

We all have a tendency in life to want everything to go our way. In The Quiet Place God wants each of us to learn that our way may sometimes be in direct conflict with His will. Our life will sometimes have seasons of difficult trials, discouraging disappointment, and painful devastating suffering. Regardless of our feelings, our circumstances or our dreams, His will must reign over our will. 

"This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:  “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."  Isaiah 30:15

Christ Submitted His Will to God's Sovereignty

Jesus later modeled this truth at a time when He was soon to face the greatest test of His earthly ministry. As He prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed knowing the horrific circumstances that were to come. He sought to prepare His heart for the coming agonies of the Cross.

We will never know the sweetness of precious worship and intercession with God, until we are brought to a place where we kneel alone before His Glory and Majesty as our Sovereign Father.  This is especially true when there is no evidence of a miracle we so desperately had hoped that He would grant. It is often in the darkest hour of sorrow and suffering, that the Holy Spirit makes His presence intimately known, as we fall prostrate before His Throne in absolute surrender.

In The Quiet Place Christ Communed with His Father

 

Christ had but one place to be on that terrible night in Gethsemane, and that was to seek out His Father, and shut out the world around Him. The only way, in the midst of suffering that we can rise above the pain, and despair, is to draw near to God, and share our heart with Him alone. 

Try to picture that night in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knew He was about to be thrust into unspeakable horror and the unimaginable anguish of the crucible of the Cross.  

Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, would now actually humble Himself, and die as the sacrificial atonement for our sins, as The Lamb of God (See Phil.2:6-8). The King of Kings would become the Lamb of God... because He loved us, and He knew that there was no other way for mankind to be cleansed from our sins and have access to His Father's heart.

He was about to give His life, and take upon Him the sin of the world, as mankind’s only atonement for sin. He was about to die for all of us. You and I were in His mind, and on His heart at that very moment in time (Luke 22:41-43). 

He sought first of all a private place apart from others where He could lay down His heart and will before His Father in Heaven.

“He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them,” Luke 22: 41a

He bowed His knee to His father in Heaven as an act of complete submission to His Father’s Sovereign will and purpose.

 “He knelt down…” Luke 22:41b

He brought His desire and request before His Father as a separate singular issue.

  “He …prayed…” Luke 22:41c

He acknowledged that His Father alone had the authority, and therefore the power to grant His request, or to choose not to grant it.

"Father, if you are willing…” Luke 22:42a

He specifically requested for a deliverance from the tragic and horrific circumstances that were about to come to pass.

 “… take this cup from me…” Luke 22:42b

He submitted to His Father’s will with reverence and obedience.

“…yet, not My will, but Yours be done.” Luke 22:42c 

It comes down to this issue for each and every one of us: God has the right, and does not need our permission, to rearrange our life to achieve His purposes. In the blink of an eye, anyone's whole life can get turned upside down and, and like the Old Testament example of Job, you may not be able to make sense of it, others may judge you because of it, and it even may get worse before it gets any better. 

Yielding our Hopes and our Dreams

Our dreams for our lives will only truly satisfy our hearts, when He is able to weave them into the tapestry of His Sovereign plan.  For that to be so, we must come to trust Him as Lord above all things. He must have uncontested authority over our hopes, dreams and our plans. This is so easy to say and so difficult to put into practice. This issue will be tested every single day of our lives. His Sovereignty alone must dictate how we respond to suffering, and hardship, and everything else in our lives.

Joni Erikson wrote the following insight, reflective of her life and the hardships that she experienced,

“The best we can hope for in this life is a knothole peek at the shining realities ahead. Yet a glimpse is enough. It's enough to convince our hearts that whatever sufferings and sorrows currently assail us aren't worthy of comparison to that which waits over the horizon.” Joni Erickson Tada 

Hope is Rooted in God’s Sovereign Will

His Father did not grant His request. Let’s pause for a moment and reflect upon this staggering truth: His Father did not grant His request. It is without question that His Father's heart would be torn, and broken by the events that were soon to come upon His beloved Son, yet He did not grant His Son's request. 

Even at the expense of His Son’s suffering, knowing that Jesus would have to experience humiliation, torture and mutilation before a godless sinful angry crowd of people...God The Father did not grant His request. 

His Father would seemingly step back and witness such horrific and tortuous acts that were to be inflicted upon His Son. His Father also knew that amidst the obsidian cloaking darkness that would shadow those moments upon Calvary, unimaginable wickedness and unholy sinfulness would also be was placed upon His Son. He also knew that His Son would cry out from the cross in anguish and confusion that His Father would not come to His aid and rescue Him.

“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Matthew 27:46

Sometimes the silence of God can be misunderstood as the uncaring negligence of God to help us with whatever it is that we are in anguish about. However, the apparent silence of God may be because He alone knows that deliverance from a difficult circumstance is exactly what we do not need.

“God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” Augustine

Some have reflected that God is not interested in our happiness but in our holiness. That is true. However, let’s take this truth to a deeper core truth: God is not interested in our happiness…He is wanting us to be His.

“I'm not sure God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to love, and be loved. But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery. Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering.” C. S. Lewis  

"You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." Psalm 16:11

Does God want to bless us, provide for us, and prosper us? Of course He does, and the Scriptures are full of His promises to substantiate just that. He also has a Sovereign plan for each of us, and sometimes that plan will lead us to unhappy times where it is His Joy alone that must flow through us, and not mere transient happy feelings that come from only happy temporary circumstances. If our happenings don't happen to happen like we hope they happen, how can we be happy anyway?

When There is no Miracle there can be Peace

We need strength during tough times. Weariness breaks us down. It is God’s deepest desire that we experience His strength as we yield in The Quiet Place to His Sovereignty and trust Him. It is only then, that His peace will flow to our  troubled heart, and His it is only then that His joy will give us strength to endure.

"Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

Perhaps you are facing your own Gethsemane in your life right now. You know that to obey and trust God on a matter, will bring about consequences and perhaps suffering that is unavoidable. In that hushed moment when you are transparent and open before God, His love and His glory will flow through you, and His peace will sustain you under severe trial, for the pathway to the Throne of Grace is found in the hushed sanctum of The Quiet Place. 

^“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the Throne of Grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Hebrews 4:16

It is beside the still waters, in The Quiet Place, where The Good Shepherd waits to meet with you and restore the weariness of your soul.

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside Quiet waters. He restores my soul..." Psalm 23:1-3

Discover Peaceful Worship in The Quiet Place.

 Press the play button to listen to the music...

The love that Jesus has for each believer is collectively seen as a deep intimate love between Himself and his Bride. In the Bible the Bride of Christ is seen as the whole body of Christian believers known as the Body of Christ. In The Song of Solomon this intimate love is made personal to each one of us. It is a call to you right now to reflect upon the one relationship in your lifetime that will never hurt you, reject you, or abandon you. He is calling each of us to seek Him in...The Quiet Place.

Arise! Music Journey to the Secret Place by Terri Geisel

A Tribute to Billy and Ruth Graham

Take the time to open your heart and mind to these inspirational songs played on a guitar and reflective of quiet worship. This is a good place to pause and put back into perspective, the life you know that you want. Get out of the fast lane and just relax, pray, or work on a special project in...The Quiet Place.

The Quiet Place

Everyone needs a Quiet Place to relax and reflect or just be alone with God. Click the play button and just let the music play in the background while you read, study, pray, or just work on a project.

The Quiet Place

The Silent Cry of the Lonely Heart

Throughout time, there has always been a deep loneliness and an empty void in the heart of man that is painful, and it cries out to be met. It expresses itself as a deep yearning that is palpable. So profound is the loneliness that it is often felt as an intense desperation to find someone to take the emptiness away.

In reality, that aching inner yearning is the heart cry of the human soul that is searching for God. It awakens in a child like a tender flower, but sadly, through time, it is quelled, suppressed within and often silenced throughout the growing up years.

The stress and strain of life often anesthetizes this yearning and most people find a myriad of things to sooth and numb the emptiness within. If we were truly honest with ourselves, we all need significant times in our lives where we can experience the peacefulness of complete and total silence…. blessed solitude. Those precious Quiet moments are where we can make a heartfelt exploration of our deepest questions and pose them before the Almighty God of the universe. 

The Gentle Whisper of a Loving God

God is timeless, yet He pauses, draws near to our hearts, and listens to what we are truly saying when no one else is really listening. 

With the tragic falling away from God that took place with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, man turned away from God and lost his pure and unhindered communion with his Creator. Mankind has since been left with a spiritual vacuum and a profound painful emptiness.

The Lonely Place of the Human Heart

The Quiet Place within the heart of man, where he walked in the cool of the garden with God, became instead, a lonely place. Every person who has ever lived has experienced the awareness of a profound inner thirst, deep within the heart. 

We discover in life that no amount of money, fame, possessions or power can satisfy the longing within or fill the emptiness. History has proven that whatever man attempts to use to fill that void never brings permanent fulfillment or genuine inner peace. Instead, there is an acute dissatisfaction with what was thought to be the solution to fill the emptiness within. Life is lived in a lonely Shadowland, unseen by others, but seen and understood by God. 

Only God can Heal the Lonely Heart

  

Loneliness is an unquenchable soul thirst that only God can satisfy, for it is the expression of the homesickness of the human heart for intimate communion with God. Sometimes you can be missing one person, yet it feels that your whole world is a lonely place. Why is that? It is because unrequited love has awakened the deepest need within, and that is a longing to find the Edenic innocence, and complete serenity of The Quiet Place, where God walks with you in unhindered communion.

David described this yearning as a deep thirst:

“Just like a deer that craves streams of water, my whole being craves you, God. My whole being thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalm 42:1-2

God Alone Understands our Loneliness

Loneliness is the unquenchable thirst that nothing on earth can satisfy.  In spite of all of the sentimental poetry, romantic novels, tender musical ballads, or passionate love stories depicted in movies, there is no earthly relational experience that can truly satisfy the innermost loneliness of the human heart. 

We all need love and the companionship of intimate others, but the deep loneliness that abides within can consume us, and is a result of our soul being homesick for an intimate relationship with God.

The Human Heart is Thirsty for God's Love

Jesus identified the deepest need within mankind as an awareness of an inner thirst that cries out to be satisfied, conveying that every person knows that they are insatiably thirsty, and void of a lasting  true happiness.

 

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”John 7:37-38

God Reaches Out to Each of Us

When God awakens our thirst for Him, He does so on an individual basis. When we become conscious that He is drawing us to Himself, we are aware of our inestimable separation from Him, and discover that it is on the basis of His grace and mercy, saturated by His love, that we are given access to His heart.

"By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:8-10

God Opened the Door to His Heart

God has sought us through His Love, and bought us through His Grace, for we had a debt that we could not pay so He paid a debt that He did not owe.


"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

God Invites Us to be Near His Heart

When God brings us home to Himself, He then invites us to sit by the fire, and then He fills us with His comforting peace and all encompassing love.

"By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:8-10

The Only Way to Heal the Lonely Heart

Our deepest need is to bask intimately in the fullness of God’s love. There is nothing apart from God that can truly fill the inner void, because that place within that was lost, was created by God, for His Spirit to fill, and only He can dwell there. For Adam and Eve, the Quiet place was experienced in the external beauty of the Garden of Eden, and in their continual communion with God.

Jesus Christ has provided, through the sacrifice of Himself, access to the very heart of God. The Quiet Place has now become an internal reality through His indwelling Spirit, where we can worship and commune with God. In reality, the painful experience of loneliness in one's life, should open a pathway to the heart of God. It is a blessing of gain, disguised as loss.

When Loneliness Gives Way to Peace

"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the believer's what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19

The Blessedness of The Quiet Place

The Quiet Place....a blessed pause in life, where you set aside a time of uninterrupted solitude to meet with God. Precious moments, where you share with Him your love and draw strength from Him to do His will. Nothing on earth can replace what God has available for you, as you meet with Him intimately in The Quiet Place.