Let
perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not
lacking anything. (James 1:4)
There are walks in the spiritual wilderness that can bring us a desert season of doubt. These seasons can make us or break us. Sometimes the Lord wants to get our attention because of sins we practice. But what about when we’ve been living a life of obedience to all He commands and we’re still walking with sand in our sandals?
I remember once how after I had been living in complete obedience, I found myself walking in silent, wilderness wastes. One day I cried, “Lord
Jesus, what’s going on here? I have dedicated myself to walking in total obedience
to Your commandments and I feel like I’ve been abandoned. Why are You silent?”
It was right after that I was listening to a sermon on God’s silence after committing ourselves totally to Him. The pastor spoke of how God can test us. I remember thinking, “Well, that’s fine. He’s God and already knows what I’ll do. So how does that help me?”
Then he
said, “God tests but He also proves us. He wants us to see our
commitment is set in solid obedience. That we aren’t returning to sinful
patterns or going back to old ways of manipulating others for selfish reasons.
He will prove us and sometimes He’ll withdraw His presence from us and will go
quiet. He’s still with us but He watches and waits to prove us.” In other words,
while He knows what we’ll do, He wants us to know, too.
I want to encourage you that if you’ve fully committed to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind and you’re in a desert of silence, you’re in good company. Jesus experienced that, too and none other than Satan himself showed up to thwart God’s will. There’s no record in any of the gospels of God speaking to His only Begotten Son in that sandy wilderness situation. Angels did at the finish (Mark 1:13), but God the Father was silent through Jesus’ wilderness experience.
Being tested
is one thing but being proved in your commitment to Christ seems far superior
to your growth and edification. He already knows what you’ll do, but
what glory, honor, and worship you will offer Him in the strength of His
victories on your behalf, and what encouragement in those victories for you!
God’s
presence in a desert silence can be inferred even if He is not observed. The
absence of evidence doesn’t prove the absence of fact. To prove us God may go silent, but He never
goes deaf or blind. He is with you and knows the exact number of grains of sand you are
about to brush off those sandals. He reveals that in your weakness you are made
strong by His strength (2nd Corinthians 12:9). In proving you, He
proves Himself, so you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
Ken
