Ever fell like you’re wasting your time? Like you’re getting nowhere fast? This must have been what it felt like to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
In this age of instant text, google searches, and three minute microwave popcorn, wandering in the wilderness seems like such a waste of time.
But Deuteronomy chapter 2 shows us that God doesn’t waste anything! He uses even the difficult times in our life to teach us and prepare us.
The wilderness was a time of separating and sanctifying. It was a time of taking away the unnecessary and adding the important. And it was a time of removing old ways of life and rebuilding new ways. It was in the wilderness that God allowed the faithless to fall away, that the faithful to rise up.
The younger generation had seen God faithfully provide for forty years. This gave them confidence in God, and taught them they could trust Him. It was the wilderness that made the younger generation ready for the Promised Land to come.
God calls us to learn and grow in the midst of our wilderness, because our wilderness is preparing us for a time when God will say, “Now! Cross the gorge and begin to occupy!” (Deut. 2:24)
What do you think God is trying to teach you in your wilderness? What might He be preparing you for?