The Desperate and Empty Times

The Desolate and Empty Times

Job 7:3

So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

               There are spiritual seasons in our life as there are in nature.  Many of us have come upon those seasons in our lives when we can identify with Job.  Our lives seem so empty, desolate, full of trials and pain.  The Lord we know is real, but He seems to have forsaken us.  Our lives seem unproductive and wearisome to us.  We begin to even despair of life at times as we consider what it is all for.  We wait and wait, we cry out and voice our complaint, but like Job, there is no answer.  “What did we do Lord, that you have forsaken and abandoned us.  Our lives so swiftly pass by and must they be spent this way, in vanity and sorrow?” 

               Praise God, we have an example in Job and in the life of David, Joseph and others that we can see the seasons in their lives when they felt alone and perhaps forsaken.  What we also see in these men is a persistent faith that would cling to God no matter how great their afflictions and testing.  It is in these times that our true character and faith is tested.  It is in these dormant, dead seasons of our life that in the outward bleakness our spiritual roots must go deeper.  With our minds we struggle to understand the significance of it all, but in our spirits we cling desperately to our faith and confidence in God. 

               Perhaps some of you are in this season in your lives and this word is to encourage you that God still sets upon the throne and He hasn’t abandoned you.  He just may be firing you in the oven of suffering and affliction, which will serve to temper and strengthen you for the days ahead.  It is in these times that we must truly exercise our faith in the unseen things, counting those things that are not, as though they are.  It is easy to love God and praise Him when all is well and the blessings are falling, but we must learn the same faithfulness to Him in the difficult and desolate times.  The temptation in these times of weariness and trials is to give up.  The enemy is constantly telling us, “God has given up on us, He is not really real, He doesn’t love you.”  These wilderness experiences will test our metal and we will grow weary as we try and faithfully hold on.  Paul gives several scriptures as He pressed on through these kinds of experiences.  ” For all things [are] for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:15-16).”  In Galatians 6:9 we are exhorted, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”  Again, in Ephesians 3:13, Paul says, “Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.”

               These seasons of winter and testing are the in-workings to bring us into a greater place of ministry and usefulness in our kingdom work.  Joseph eventually persevered to become a savior of Egypt and the surrounding nations, including his own family.  David persevered to become the greatest King of Israel.  Job persevered to receive a double portion and become the priest and intercessor for those that had judged and condemned him.

               Don’t grow weary in your well doing and your faithfulness to God.  In due season you will reap the fruits of your faithfulness.  Hold fast and count the Lord always and forever faithful. 

Blessings,

#kent

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