Recharge the Desert Way

The text below is from Let the Desert Fathers Teach You How To Recharge by Phoebe Love at Relevant

Parched air. Unquenchable thirst. Isolation. No, it’s not the Sahara. It’s your spiritual life. It’s the desert of the soul when you’ve been scorched by life and your communication with God has dried up. You don’t know how you g

ot there but you feel stuck.


You’re not alone. Some 1600 years ago brave men and women went searching for something more than the norm. Inspired by Jesus journey into the wilderness, they decided to give up everything and devote themselves to prayer. By faith they moved into the silence and solitude of the Egyptian desert. They became known as the Desert Fathers and Mothers.

Most of us are not called to be hermits but at times we do find ourselves alone and isolated. We might as well be camped out in the middle of nowhere because that’s how we feel. Church is boring. Scripture is meaningless. We can’t pray. We wonder if we’re just pretending to believe anymore. Take heart. The desert believers are still speaking. Here is how we can listen.

Reduce distraction.

Our full lives echo back to these ancient Christian’s. Before their pilgrimage, they too faced daily busyness and burnout. So they reduced distractions. Determined to depend on God for everything, they gave all they had to the poor and entered the desert. Silence and Scripture became their only teachers. While this may not be practical for the rest of us we can identify what distracts us and make better use of the time we’re given. Running errands for instance. We can transform that time into quiet for ourselves. Let silence surround us while we drive. Once we’re parked, sit and breathe deeply for a moment. Enjoy being still. “If we seek God, he will show himself to us, “ said one desert father, “and if we keep him, he will remain close to us.”

Be honest.

Admitting how defeated we feel can loosen life’s grip. We live in a world that’s all about appearances so being real about struggles is tough. One place to start is the bathroom mirror. Close the door, look at your reflection and tell yourself exactly how you’re feeling. Be totally honest. For example, “I am overwhelmed by life and have no idea what to do.” Telling the truth is the practice of confession. “I am so angry that my wife died of cancer.” “I’m scared to death. I can’t find a job.” Confession is an art of the soul. It’s the free gift of being honest with what’s going on inside of us. “Teach your mouth to speak what is in your heart,” an astute elder advised. His wisdom is still relevant today.

Be alone.

We all get lonely and spiritual loneliness can be painful. When prayer and meditation are no longer consoling, it can be particularly dark. It may sound crazy but scheduling time to be alone with our pain in order to listen to it can help. The desert fathers bathed themselves in deep silence. In it, they found their true identities totally centered in their spirituality. One of them captured the essence of his journey this way. “If a man does not say in his heart, in the world there is only myself and God, then he will not gain peace.” Sometimes our pain comes from expecting others to give us purpose. We lose our true selves along the way. Learning how to be alone allows us to get back in touch with what’s happening inside. This is critical for finding God in new ways.  

Wait.

Though making a change has its place, there is much to be said for standing still and waiting. We live in a revolving-door world but we don’t have to get caught in the momentum. In fact, waiting can be very beneficial. Through it we develop patience, perseverance, and even contentment. One of the most famous sayings of the Desert Father’s is, “Sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.” A cell is where you go to spend time in prayer and meditation. Go there regularly despite your mood and trust God to do the work. Let go of expectations. Practice acceptance of yourself and your circumstances. Wait there and see what happens.



Choosing Wilderness Time

Last Saturday I took several hours to go on a prayer walk. I know I need more of this. Here is an excerpt from Emile Griffen's guide to spiritual retreat: Wilderness Time. Linking The Indispensability Of Retreat To That Of Daily Rhythms Of Prayer via Renovare. Maybe you need this too!

Finding time for retreat is as difficult as finding time for prayer in an ordinary, overscheduled day. Whether the time be days or minutes, the issues are the same. Is retreat one of our priorities? Does God have a place in our scheme? How far we have allowed ourselves to slide! How distant we feel from the spirit of prayer! Possibly the barrier is not time at all. What we are up against is not really the pressure of events, not the many demands on our time, but a stubbornness within ourselves, a hard-heartedness that will not yield to transformation and change.

Setting aside a morning, a day, even a week or more for spiritual retreat is one of the most strengthening and reinforcing experiences of our lives. We need to yield. We have to bend. Once we embrace the spiritual disciplines, we are carried along, often, by a storm of grace. Giving way to the power of spiritual disciplines becomes a step toward freedom, a movement into the wide-open spaces of the sons and daughters of God.
Retreat—with all of its prayerful beginnings and renewals—can become a step into reality. On retreat we may discover our true identity not from any self-analysis but by God’s gift of enlightenment.

The spiritual disciplines are ways to truth, stepping stones from our furious activity into God’s calm and peace. When we have crossed over on the stepping stones, we escape into the life of grace. Then and there it is the Lord who teaches us. The power of God is leading us. Soon we hardly know where God leaves off and we begin.

How to Use Wilderness Time

[It’s right to raise and answer] practical questions, yet the aim is not practicality as such but rather personal transformation in Christ. Hope of such transformation moves us into a place apart, a time of prayerful separation from daily pressures and cares.

Transformation is God’s doing—not ours—yet it happens because we choose it, in this instance by going apart for reflection and prayer.

People sometimes suppose that a special reason is needed to justify making a retreat. We assume that a retreat needs to be made on a certain occasion. In fact, no more reason is needed than that your heart longs for greater closeness with God—because you are worn out by many annoyances and worries, and you are seeking the refreshment of God’s presence; because you need rest from the anxieties of ordinary living, even from the legitimate responsibilities imposed by family, work, and church; because you want to follow the example of Jesus in going apart to pray.

Gifts Of The Wilderness

Good words for those of us going through wilderness times -  Gifts of the Wilderness by Carolyn Arends

Wilderness seasons are bewildering and lonely. Sometimes it’s easy to identify how you arrived in a desolate place—down paths with names like Diagnosis, or Loss, or Depression. Other times you find yourself in a malaise or a spiritual wasteland seemingly out of nowhere. You were making progress, arranging your life appropriately, and then you took a left turn at Albuquerque and the landscape became fiercely inhospitable.

It’s natural to want to avoid wilderness experiences. Yet the biblical writers suggest that the wilderness is an expected and even necessary part of walking with God. Nowhere is this made clearer than in the life of Jesus.

Matthew’s Gospel lays out for us a vivid depiction of Jesus’ most prolonged wilderness season. First, Jesus’ public ministry is launched with a dramatic moment of affirmation: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’”(Matthew 3:16–17, NIV).

If I were scripting the story, I’d move Jesus from that profound confirmation of his identity directly into his mission. But, instead, the plot takes a sharp twist: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (4:1).

Theology professor Ross Hastings says the phrase “led by the Spirit into the wilderness” reminds him of the day his parents led him by the hand into a hospital ward for a tonsillectomy. The kind of love that wants us to be well is not the kind of love that always leads us somewhere easy.

So why would the Spirit lead Jesus to the wilderness? And why might the Spirit lead us there as well?

The Boot Camp Theory

Pastor Mark Clark loves to picture Jesus’ time in the wilderness as Navy Seals training. Like an elite soldier, Jesus had to endure the most extreme regimen imaginable to prepare him for his mission. The mandates and methods of the Kingdom of God needed to be so deeply ingrained that he could stay true to them under any degree of pressure.

Clark jokingly imagines implementing a radical discipleship program in which recent converts are put through the wringer like marine recruits until they can recite Scripture under highly stressful conditions. It’s a silly—and scary—proposal. But there is something to this theory of the wilderness.

Read the rest at the link 

Remember in the Desert, And Beyond

From Why God Sends You Through a Season in the Desert by Jennifer Kennedy Dean

...In those years, for the most part, they repeated the same obedience day after day with no hint that it really mattered. Manna, quail, cloud, fire. Worship, offer sacrifices, pack, unpack. Set up camp, take down camp. Over and over.

No change on the horizon. No evidence of the Promised Land anywhere in sight. Obedience by obedience, they followed the Lord.

Small acts of faithfulness every day for 40 years. As Moses recounts it and refreshes their memories, he doesn't softsoap the hard edges. It was tough. It was vast and terrible.He reminds them how it felt because they are about to enter the Promised Land and leave the thirsty and waterless land behind. The abundant living in the Promised Land has been prefaced by the long walk in the dry desert. Why?

During their extended training in the desert, they learned by experience to trust the hand of God. For example, He fed them with manna day by day. If God had not sent the day's manna, they would have starved in the wilderness. Every morning required confidence in God's provision. See how Moses warns them to remember the desert days when they get into the Promised Land?

Moses says that all this training and desert traveling was "so that in the end it may go well with you." Have you ever known anyone who achieved all they ever dreamed of, then lost it all through their own actions and choices? Moses tells the people that not only is God about to release the fullness of the promise into their lives, but He has prepared their hearts to live large in the abundance of His provision.

Small Change

In some areas of your life, you have moved into the Promised Land and are living large. Look around and remember on purpose that God is the provider and sustainer. In some areas of your life, you are on a desert walk. When you feel the desert's heat, step back mentally and look for how God's provision is evident. Today, find one thing that you will thank God for instead of complaining about. Pray: "Do Your work, Refiner's Fire, that in the end it may go well for me."

Wilderness Experiences

From Jennifer LaClaire at Charisma Magazine - 3 Reasons You Might Be in the Wilderness Right Now:

We all walk through peaks and valleys—and we all have our wilderness experiences. But there’s a big difference between being a voice crying in the wilderness in obedience to God and finding yourself stuck in the wilderness, going around the same mountain over and over (and over).

I’ve experienced both realities, and I can tell you the former is liberating because you know you are smack-dab in the center of God’s will. The latter is frustrating because you know you’re absolutely missing it somewhere.

Of course, if you don’t have a revelation of why you are in the wilderness—if you are antsy for your big ministry debut, even though it’s not God’s timing—then you could be frustrated even in the will of God.

So, how do we interpret our wilderness experiences? With the help of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. I’m offering up a few possibilities here. There may be others. The important thing is not to play guessing games about the season you find yourself in. You need revelation and understanding that you can hang your faith on while you go through the wilderness so you don’t faint and give up.

1. Unbelief and Rebellion Will Leave You Wandering in the Wilderness

Sometimes you find yourself wandering in the wilderness year after year after year. It feels like you are going around the same mountain over and over (and over). That may be because you are. Remember, it was a three-day journey from the Red Sea to the Promised Land, but the Israelites wandered around in the wilderness, circling Mount Seir, for 40 years.

Why did it take so long? One reason was unbelief. The Father was prepared to take them into the Promised Land after two years, but 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent into the Promised Land brought back an evil report of unbelief (Num. 14). God waited until all the unbelieving men of war died, just like He said He would (Deut. 2:14).

Psalm 78:17 also notes that the Israelites rebelled against God in thewilderness. And Hebrews warns readers, “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years” (Heb. 3:8-9). If you have been in the wilderness for years, ask the Holy Spirit if there is unbelief or rebellion in your heart.

2. God Is Waiting for His Perfect Time to Reveal You

John the Baptist seemingly spent much of his life in the wilderness. Luke records this about John: “So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Luke 1:80).

John was the one Isaiah prophesied about: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Is. 40:3). We know John did just that, as Mark pulled out Isaiah’s words when introducing John, who “came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:4-5).

John’s public ministry lasted only months after the day of his manifestation to Israel. Herod murdered him, but not before he fulfilled his ministry as a forerunner of Christ. Now, John was not in the wilderness because of anything he was doing wrong. John’s manifestation to Israel was a matter of God’s timing....

More at the link.

Do Not Be Surprised

10 Things To Do When Enduring Suffering by Ed Welch:

1. Don’t be surprised by suffering (1 Pet. 4:12). The Son suffered, so do those who follow the Son. You will not be spared the sufferings that the world experiences, but you will participate in them, both for the world’s benefit and your own.
2. Live by faith, see the unseen (Heb. 2:2). Normal eyesight is not enough. Your eyes will tell you that God is far away and silent. The truth is that he is close—invisible—but close. He has a unique affection for fellow sufferers. So get help to build up your spiritual vision. Search Scripture. Enlist others to help, to pray, to remind you of the Truth. Ask the God of comfort to comfort you.
3. Suffering will reveal what is really in your heart. It will test you (Jam. 1:2). Where do you turn when tested? Do you turn toward Jesus or turn inward?
4. God is God, you are not (Job 38-42). This is important. Humility and submission before the King can quiet some of your questions.
5. Confess sin. There is nothing new here; it is a regular feature of daily life. Yet it always helps you to see the cross of Jesus more clearly. It is the quickest way to see the persistent and lavish love of God (Heb. 12).
6. Keep an eye out in Scripture for the Suffering Servant. He has entered into your suffering, and you can enter into his. (Isaiah 39-53, John 10-21)
7. Speak honestly and often to the Lord. This is critical. Just speak, groan, have someone read you a psalm and say a weak, “Amen.”
8. Expect to get to know God better while in this wilderness. That is how he usually works with his people (Phil. 3:10-11).
9. Talk to those who have suffered, read their books, listen to them. You are not alone. Insist on being moved with compassion as you hear other stories of suffering.
10. Look ahead. We need spiritual vision for what is happening now and for where the universe is heading. We are on a pilgrimage that ends at the temple of God (Ps. 84).

Read the rest.

HT Vitamin Z

Where God Sends His Favorites

"You may think your in obscurity right now because you've done something wrong.You may think you're in the wilderness because you've been cursed or abandoned by God. But if you're in the wilderness, I'd like to suggest it's because you are so desperately loved. What if you are living in obscurity because God is so intent on showing you things about yourself that you would not otherwise see and revealing things about His love that you would not otherwise know?

Obscurity is where God sends all of His favorite sons and daughters. Our society tells us that if and when we get 'there' - the job or position or degree we've always wanted, the notoriety we've always dreamed of - that's when all the important stuff will start happening. Not so. 

All the good stuff happens in obscurity."

 Prototype: What Happens When You Discover That You Are More Like Jesus Than You Think, by Jonathan Martin, pages 64-65

The Gift of Wilderness

"In my attempts to go into the wilderness on my 'spiritual retreat,' I had not yet gone deep enough.I thought the object of the time was to immerse myself in prayer and Scripture. I forgot that the object was actually God, that real prayer is what happens when my head and heart are fully exposed to Him.

God hadn't drawn me into the wilderness so I could attempt to prove myself to him with religious activity (instead of the more secular activities I indulge in to prove myself to everyone else). He hadn't brought me away from the hustle and noise so I could demonstrate my spirituality to Him. He brought me out to allure me. He didn't want my performance. He wanted my attention. And at that point I don't believe He was drawing me to a place where I could talk to Him. He was drawing me to a place where He could talk to me.

Obscurity is not punishment. The wilderness is the place where our identity is solidified. the wilderness has its perils, to be sure; yet in a sense, there is no safer place. In the wilderness we find out who we really are. We find out what we are afraid of. We find out who our enemies are."

 Prototype: What Happens When You Discover That You Are More Like Jesus Than You Think, by Jonathan Martin, pages 61-62

The Gift of Obscurity

"In our culture of constant access and non-stop media, nothing feels more like a curse from God than time in the wilderness....

...If only they know that God draws people into obscurity - into the wilderness- not because He's angry with them or because they are not 'successful enough,' but because He wants to go deeper into His relationship with them. Far from being punishment, judgement, or a curse, the wilderness is a gift. It is where we can experience the primal delight of being fully known and delighted in by God."

-Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover That You Are More Like Jesus Than You Think, page 50

Asking Directions

 Hat Tip:  Theological Scribbles