Yesterday, we began a mini-series on strategies for enduring the wilderness wanderings of life. We considered the example of Caleb who ​had "a different spirit" in "follow[ing] [God] fully" (Numbers 14:24), even through the 40-year holding pattern he endured. In these next few posts, we will consider four strategies for cultivating a different spirit that fully follows God even when the path seems to go in circles. 

Ask yourself two questions to help you evaluate how you are viewing your current situation in life:

• “What am I thinking and believing about myself?” You may be considering yourself too highly (e.g., “I deserve…” “I need…” “I always thought…” “I just want…” etc.). That haughty evaluation may be contributing to your sense of aimlessness in that you consider your life situation to be so far below where you have placed yourself.
• “What am I thinking and believing about God?” You may be considering God too low (e.g., that He owes you, that He’s failed you, that He’s unfair, that He’s not good, that He’s forgotten you, etc.). That deficient evaluation may be contributing to your sense of aimlessness in that you have shrunk God or removed Him from the picture entirely, and in so doing, all purpose is forsaken.

As you seek to evaluate and adjust your perspective, let me suggest three actions to help you do so.

1.  Trust God’s sovereignty (Genesis 50:20).

The story of Joseph undoubtedly contained many “holding patterns.” Divine dreams provoked him to anticipate great things in his future…until his brothers sold him into slavery. A rapid rise to unparalleled responsibility mitigated the sting of his past…until his master’s wife lied about his unblemished character and he was thrown into jail. Increased respect and trust from his captors alleviated the shame of being in prison and an interpreted prophecy suggested that his break might come…until the butler forgot all about him and he continued to be confined to the prison.

Yet, at the end of it all, consider Joseph’s perspective—“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Do you believe that, friend?

In Psalm 27:13, the psalmist reflects, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” This is where we need to live, friends, when life is no longer the rosy script that we wrote for it!

The wilderness wandering may be God’s permanent script for you (Psalm 139:16); or, perhaps He’s using it to grow and teach you (Hebrews 12:5-6); or, maybe He wants to use you in it or prepare you through it. Whatever His purpose—don’t run away! Trust God’s perfect sovereignty and loving goodness into and through the wilderness wandering.

This alone is how Jeremiah survived, for he recorded in Lamentations 3:19-24, “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

2.  Remember your mission (Philippians 3:7-15).

Friend, even in the wilderness, you have a heavenly and eternal mission! Don’t forget that! Your mission is to know Christ and make Him known, and there is no situation in life where that mission is insufficient or impossible.

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:7-15, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings.”

The mission of knowing, enjoying, and promoting Christ consumed and drove Paul in every situation—in the palace and in prison, on a journey and in jail, during a church plant and throughout a trial, when prospering and when persecuted, when enjoying fruit and when experiencing futility.

You and I have to stop looking to the future to find our purpose and mission. We need to look back (to the cross and empty tomb) and hear again and again the commission of Christ as He left this earth—“As you are going, make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20)! Friend, even in the wilderness, then, there is much work to do. We don’t have to wait for tomorrow to be something great or do something great. We can know Christ now! We can make Him known now! That is Christ’s very commission to us here in our wilderness wandering. Truth is, if you aren’t fulfilling your mission in the wilderness, then you probably won’t in the jungle or in the city or in the mountains or wherever you would rather be.

With Paul, learn to consider as “loss” what you have been counting so dear (e.g., others’ opinions, your agenda, your dreams, etc.), so that Christ might become preeminent (Philippians 3:7-15)!

In fact, don’t overlook the unique opportunities that your present situation gives you to engage in your mission. Consider the unique ministry that Caleb enjoyed for 40 years with the next generation. As his peers died off, he and Joshua alone were able to consistently and effectively mentor the next generation, teaching with faith and experience the stories and principles and commandments that the young people needed in order to not repeat the sins of their parents and to inherit the Promised Land. And at the end of the 40 years, Joshua and Caleb had the uniquely customized responsibility of leading the Israelites across Jordan. The 40-year wilderness wandering was undoubtedly challenging, but it afforded Caleb ministry opportunities he would have been prepared for and offered nowhere else. Likewise, your holding pattern is a special situation in which unique opportunities may be enjoyed.

• In the wilderness, you can uniquely know Christ. — Your wilderness may be a quiet time where you can study Christ. Your wilderness may be a lonely time where you can rest on Christ. Your wilderness may be a confusing time where you can trust Christ. Your wilderness may be a painful time where you can suffer with Christ. In the wilderness, you have the joy of expectantly waiting for God to turn your wilderness into a garden (Hosea 2).
• In the wilderness, you can uniquely make Christ known. — In the wilderness, your personality, agenda, goals, etc. are stripped away in order that we might “boast [only] in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). In the wilderness, you might be stuck in the same place, and so you can become acquainted with those around you and their needs and begin to turn them to Jesus. In the wilderness, you learn how to minister to those who are also in the wilderness.

​In the wilderness, friend, you are still “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” In your holding pattern, you can still “as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). Brothers and sisters, I know life may have you down, I know your situation may not be what you had hoped, I know your dreams may be unfulfilled—but, never forget, you wilderness wanderer, that you have been given an incredible mission to know Christ and make Him known to others!

3.  Accept your situation (Philippians 4:11-13).

Writing from prison, more of a “holding cell” than a “holding pattern” but sharing many of its same characteristics, Paul expresses, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Paul had “learned” contentment, a lesson that comes, not from reading books or listening to a teacher, but by yielding to the Spirit as He guides you through His Word. In fact, you have to be put into a situation in which you are tempted to be discontent, in order for you to learn and practice contentment. Dear friend, the wilderness wandering is one such situation, a homework assignment through which God desires to cultivate the foundational virtue of humble contentment.

I say this is a foundational virtue, for we can hardly know our identity or mission apart from it. See, friends, we are “servants” of God, we are under authority, we are governed by a Master—we are literally humble “slaves.” Therefore, if our Master has sovereignly ordained this period of seeming aimlessness and if He has commanded us into it, we need surrendered humility to acknowledge, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:7-10).

The Bible is filled with unworthy servants who only did their duty through the wilderness wanderings of life. God’s Word is filled with nameless plodders, and Paul’s ministry, for example, was energized by numerous unidentified locals, etc.

The American Dream has enlarged us to envision other places and other opportunities. The call of the gospel stirs us to greater things, riskier things. Growing independence energizes us to blaze trails and build cities. But the wilderness may be God’s will for you right now. And if it’s His will, friend, you should embrace it, for there is absolutely nothing better—His will is best. In this day and age of American individualism and adventurism, remember that those are neither biblical requirements nor even biblical realities. Rather, contentment with one’s situation and humility as an obedient servant earn His “well done.”

What are your first thoughts when you hear the word “Christmas”? How does your mind and heart respond?

For many, their first thought has to do with shopping and buying and spending and budgeting! In fact, the average Christmas spending per American adult in 2014 was $781.

During a time of the year that has been hijacked by our culture in its materialism and secularism, we should make it a priority to think rightly about the Christmas season. And there is perhaps no better teacher than those original nativity characters—Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men. Indeed, by considering their responses on the first Christmas, we learn how God would have us respond this holiday season. During this Christmas, put yourself in the nativity scene.

Luke paints an unmistakable contrast between the response of Zechariah (Luke 1:5-23) and that of Mary (Luke 1:26-38) to the angel, Gabriel.  Notice the similar situation: Gabriel appeared to both (vv. 11, 26), which provoked a response of fear (“troubled”: vv. 12, 29); the angel calmed their fear and assured them that God was showing them grace (vv. 13, 30); he then proclaims the glorious revelation from God that He had been sent to communicate, and in both cases, it is a message about a miraculous birth (vv. 13-17; vv. 31-33; notice all the “wills” in these verses–a clear expression of divine promise).

A contrast emerges between Zechariah’s response in vv. 18-22 and vv. 34-38.  Both servants ask a question of the angel, essentially inquiring, “How?” (v. 18). And it is at this point that the narrative diverges. On the one hand, Zechariah betrays an Abraham-like (Genesis 17:15-21) or Gideon-like (Judges 6:36-40) lack of faith in the improbable. In fact, he simply does not believe the Word of God, for he skeptically asks, “How shall I know this?” (v. 18; cf. v. 20b). And this is doubly-indicting, for he was a seasoned servant of the Lord (a priest), “walking blamelessly” and believing and obeying the “commandments and statutes of the Lord” (vv. 5-6), and he had actually been praying for this very thing (a child, v. 13).

Mary, on the other hand, also asks, “How?” (v. 34). But her question doesn’t reflect a disbelief in the improbable, but an attempt to discern the impossible (cf. v. 37). She is seeking to understand the mystery of the incarnation—that she, being a virgin, could bear a child (v. 34).

The contrast between this pious priest and humble girl is further sharpened by the angel’s answer to both. Zechariah is simply told of Gabriel’s position (i.e., he “stands in the presence of God”) and purpose (i.e., “I was sent…to bring you this good news”) and is rebuked “because [he] did not believe my words” (vv. 18-20). Mary is given additional revelation, culminating with the simple reality that “nothing will be impossible with God” (vv. 35-37).

Now, Mary faces the same decision as Zechariah: will she believe or doubt? Her response is humble and trusting: “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38).  \Considering the occupational, experiential, and age difference between the two, we would have expected this response from Zechariah. Yet, here is a young girl, who is beginning to understand the frightening implications of an unexplained pre-marriage pregnancy, and she simply humbles herself in trusting faith. And it wasn’t just that she submitted, she really “believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (v. 45). She knew and trusted her God well enough, that she could simply bank on Him, even when He didn’t make sense.
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Application: The miracle and grace of the incarnation reminds us to respond with humble faith in God’s Word no matter what the confusion and difficulty we may be facing. Believe God’s promises, cling to His Word, have confidence in His truth—“for nothing will be impossible with God”!

This was originally shared during Midweek Connection on October 22.