There are times when we find ourselves stuck in desert lands. We usually try to avoid them for they are hot and dry. We desire for cooler and greener lands because we feel uncomfortable facing the difficult challenges and trials that we experience in them. But deserts are places where we can grow stronger and become more mature. These are places where we can be grateful for what we have and hope for what is about to come.

Throughout the past two months when I was reading the Bible, God gave me beautiful verses about being in a desert. Because of these verses, I understood that being in deserts does not mean that we have to stay disheartened or depressed while in them. We have to accept our situations and learn how to adapt.

God allows us to thrive in deserts due to the following:

1. So we can get thirsty.

"O God, thou art my God; early will I seek longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is." Psalm 63:1

God is like water. God is essential to life. He allows us to be thirsty so we can seek him and find him. Then He will purify and restore us.

2. So we can trust Him.

"For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." Isaiah 51:3

God allows us to remain in the wilderness so our trust can be built not in ourselves but in Him. We are allowed to bear the heat, stand firm in sandy shores, and survive with little food and water until we have used up every ability, everything else we have, and only our faith in Him is left. But He will not only allow us to undergo the trial but He will allow us to experience more of His goodness and faithfulness.

"I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isaiah 41:18

God has promised fountains and rivers of blessing that will spring up in our desert lands. He has promised higher places and greener heights. He has promised us an Eden.

3. So we can receive His promises.

"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.." Isaiah 43:18-19

At times, we fail to perceive that God is doing a beautiful thing in us while we are in the desert. But during the difficulties and trials, He is molding, shaping, and enabling us to thrive. He may have let us enter hot and dry lands but He will take us out of them--baked and whole.

While in desert lands, we are not to be shaken or moved for God will go with us and even before us. He who has been with us in the desert will bring us out.

Behold, greener lands ahead..