The Journey From Wilderness to Promised Land

In my walk with the Lord, I find it so helpful to be able to acknowledge what kind of season I’m in. For example, if things around me are coming to an end 🛑, if a ministry that I built that once felt fun and exciting now feels heavy 😔; then I can acknowledge that I’m coming into a winter season.

Most people don’t LOVE a winter season. I get it. It’s not my favorite either. BUT if I look around, and things seem cold ❄️, barren, and a little dark, then that helps me know how to pray 🙏. I thank Him for the slowing down, the space to rest and grieve. I invite Him into the darkness with me, where He’s happy to share in my suffering.

Winter is when my faith is increased that the Lord is working below the surface. It’s where I learn to trust Him 💖, and our intimacy is increased. As in the natural world 🌍, each season has a purpose. None of it is wasted. It’s all NECESSARY.

In one area of my life, I am coming out of something even longer than a winter season. Rather than winter, it feels like I'm coming out of the wilderness. It's been many years – too long to call it just a season. But even in the wilderness, there has been beauty and goodness. God is good all the time. He has never left me. As I come out of this wilderness season, I can see the Promised Land. I can see the goodness and freedom that is coming. But there is a lot that has to be done before I can settle in. I have to trust the Lord to walk me through some hard conversations, some scary decisions, and the letting go of some big dreams. There are some things in the way that only He can drive out. The Bible tells us:

I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. - Exodus 23:27-30 (NIV)

When we are coming out of the wilderness, we want the Promised Land right now. If the Promised Land is what God had for his people, WHY can’t He do something to move the enemy immediately? Why do His people have to wait again, fighting battle after battle for the next few YEARS to take possession of God’s promised inheritance? They must be so weary from being out in the wilderness (as am I). Where is the mercy? But that’s why this passage from Exodus is so beautiful to me as I leave the wilderness behind, because it’s a rare glimpse into the “why.”

God says He can see something we can’t see. In His wisdom, He is considering much more than just our desires. He could drive out one enemy, but if He did, there would be others prowling. He could wipe the wild animals out, too, but they all serve a purpose in the ecosystem that benefits His people. As I go into my own battles for the next several months, wishing I could just be safely on the other side after so many years in the wilderness, I am comforted to know that there is purpose in the process.

I might just want it all to be over, the problem solved, but I don’t see the whole picture, the delicate balance of how each decision and step I take affects His people. The sudden elimination of all my problems might mean total devastation for someone close to me. It’s not all about me.

And even though it isn’t all about me, I can trust that He has something for me in what’s ahead.

As I leave behind my own wilderness season, I can say that there is an energizing happening. There is a quiet celebration about an ending to something that was quite painful. It’s time for me to take on the fight for the promises God has for me in this new season. I get to trust Him for something totally new and then watch to see what He does as I take His hand and walk through this “clearing out” of the vast landscape ahead of me – inch by inch. I’m prepared – thanks to the wilderness – for this last phase of getting to the new place God has for me. It might feel unfair to have to fight for what’s promised to me after such a long and hard journey, but I know that God can see what I can’t.

If I didn’t take the time to process with the Lord where I actually am, I might crumble under what is ahead. But instead, I sat with Him and let Him show me that He has something beautiful for me if I just hold on to Him a little longer. And the best part? Because of this wilderness season, I’ve been holding onto Him so tightly for so long, I’ll actually never let go. I wouldn’t trade this hard road I’ve traveled with Jesus for anything. It’s where I learned to trust Him and talk to Him. It’s where I learned to crawl into His lap and let Him love me. It’s these things that I will not leave in the wilderness. I will take them with me into the Promised Land because without them, there would be no milk or honey.

And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey. - Exodus 3:17 (NIV)

Niki Hathorn, Worthy Content Creator

• How does recognizing the spiritual season you are in impact your relationship with God and your approach to prayer?

• Have you ever had a wilderness season? What gifts/tools/disciplines did you walk out of it with?

• Why do you think God allows delays or gradual progress in fulfilling His promises?