1 Timothy 6:6 “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Continuing, Pastor Kyle states that the second thing we need to get through the desert wilderness of life is the ability to count your blessings, when it is easier to focus on life’s burdens. There are blessings in every wilderness, if you are willing to count them. Every cloud has a silver lining, meaning that when a situation seems to be desperate there is always hope for better things to come. The best recipe to building up your faith in desert seasons is to count your blessings. You shouldn’t dwell on what you don’t have, but should be grateful for the things in your life that God provides and has done for you, solidly based on an eternal perspective of the kingdom of Heaven.
The problem occurs when we stop focusing on the goodness and faithfulness of God, then get over-whelmed by our current problems. Many don’t need a hot desert wilderness like the Israelites to question God; we just need a few things in our life to not go the way that we want them to go. Today, our society gets way more frustrated over way less, when we have way more in life than we could ever dream of.
The third thing we need to get through the desert wilderness of life is a reminder of God’s delivery system: it’s just enough, just in time. God’s provision is infinite, but He sent His provision just a little of just what we need at the time. The Israelites need food, so God sent daily supernatural bread from the sky in a barren land. They needed water, so God supernaturally provides water from a rock in a dry desert to meet their need. Not their way, but God’s way. He made them wait until they ran out to test them and see if they trusted Him. It was a learning experience to teach trust of God and to count their blessings. For the “born again” Believer, you are His redeemed child, bought with the price of His Son Jesus’ blood. God provides “daily bread” sustenance to meet our needs to all that trust in Him; He knows them all. Jesus is our daily bread.
Deuteronomy 8:11-17 says, “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’”
The fourth thing we need to get through the desert wilderness of life is a wise plan for tomorrow. What does the whole counsel of God’s Word tell us? The diligent prosper; they are hardworking and plan for the future. Money doesn’t grow on trees. The time when planning becomes a problem is when we believe that we provide for ourselves and forget God. God gifted us with the ability to plan ahead, but we must always and forever trust and know that the Lord, our God, is our Provider. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways are higher than our ways, and His plans are higher than our plans. We need dependence on God to provide our daily bread.
In Christ, Brian
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