Your dry season isn't meaningless.
Do you feel like you’re in a desert?
Maybe wandering. Maybe hiding. Maybe alone or empty or worn down. Hungry, longing, reaching, walking…
Sometimes we spend so much time trying to scrape our way out of the desert that we miss what the desert could actually be there for.
I want you to know (because I need to know it, too) that being in a dry season doesn’t mean that you’re not exactly where you’re supposed to be.
Snapshot for fun: Taking a mini-pause from all of the walking to heat my leg!
I’ve been struggling a bit lately—now that I’ve got my feet under me more.
I’ve barely stopped moving since God gave me my legs back, and I’m tired.
It's funny: in all of my constant movement, I’ve been like I can’t produce what I feel called to produce. Like I can’t keep up with my list of expectations for myself (usually a sign that I'm taking on too much). I've been feeling tired.
Feeling like I’m in a bit of a dry season.
I know I need to rest in Him. To listen to His beautiful voice, rejoicing over me like He so beautifully does. I need to let Him be the water that soothes my soul. To know that this dry season isn’t failure. I need to let Him show me the places in my heart that need to be surrendered. I need to let Him be the one who directs my path and moves me. To let Him be my strength to stand. To let Him show me what is the most important thing in this moment.
Dry seasons are never meaningless, my friend. God is always with us in them and He is always working.
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)
Deserts are sometimes places of wandering.
They are the places where God’s people roam and can't get to their destination, because of their own poor choices. He uses the desert to reveal our hearts. To cause us to rely on Him for everything. To teach us that He is the only way and the only truth and the only life.
Sometimes, the deserts are the places of testing.
They are the places of faith-strengthening. Of choosing to trust God. Of believing that He’s the only One who’s worth it. Like when Jesus, hungry and secluded, was tempted by Satan and He still stood up under it.
Other times, the deserts are places of preparation.
The way David, who had been promised a throne, had to run for his life and hide in caves in the desert. God used that time to shape David’s heart to be after His own. He was shaping David’s heart for the promise. Making him ready for the high calling on his life.
Deserts are often the places we need to listen and learn and soak in the truth.
John the Baptist spent eighteen years in the wilderness in preparation for just an eighteen-month ministry. Hagar ran away from where she was being mistreated and hid in the desert, when the angel of the Lord met with her and affirmed her and told her to go back to the place she was running from. And He blessed her with a promise greater than anything she could have imagined.
Dry seasons are never meaningless.
God is always with us in them and He is always working in us and through us and around us.
[T]he world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11: 38-40)
Dry seasons always give us the opportunity to choose to trust God. To search out our identity in Him. To withstand temptation in the strength that can only come from God. To realize our desperate need for Him in every moment. To listen. To learn. To focus. To be prepared for far greater things. To become women after God’s own heart.
Deserts remind us that we’re not there yet. They remind us that the promise is still in front of us, and we just need to keep walking. Walking with God. Growing in faith. Trusting in the One who sees where we’re going.
Are you in a dry season?
- Ask God for your next steps. He’ll give you what you need.
- Ask Him for wisdom. He loves to pour it out.
- Ask Him for strength. He’ll carry you through.
- Ask Him for His heart. He longs for all of yours.
Coming soon to the To Choose Joy shop, on the other side of a dry season:
Parenting Resources!!
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