Why am I in the desert?

I have been drawn to a desert of sorts these past few years. My "Valley of Baca" (Psalm 84:6), so to speak. It has been a very difficult season of life, yet, in that place, I have found Yahweh afresh! By His loving hand, I believe He placed me in this wilderness to teach me and minister to me in ways I could never have received if I had (longingly) stayed where I was.

In this place, I have learned to be nourished from the very Bread of heaven. I have learned to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I have drawn deeply from the well in the middle of this dry and thirsty land, and am finding, delightfully, that the well never runs dry! Adonai is truly sufficient to meet ALL my needs, even though there are many.

I am convinced that the time is short and we are living in the last days. I am even more thankful that the Lord has been training me to be sustained by Him alone. Feasting on His Word, drawing me to obey in new areas I had previously ignored, and causing my roots to go down deep. In the desert there is not much water available to a weary traveler, at least not much on the surface where it is visible and easily accessed. In the desert, to survive, you absolutely have to dig and go down deep to find that water! It is a matter of life or death. True in the natural, but even more true in the spiritual!

What is true, as Shaul (Paul) tells us, in the natural is also true in the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). A large tree was uprooted and fell in my back yard a few weeks ago. What a powerful image in the natural of spiritual truth! Every time I look outside my kitchen window, which is often, I see this uprooted, dead tree sprawled across my snow covered lawn. It reminds me daily that if I am not rooted deeply in my faith in Yeshua the Messiah and in my Hebrew roots (as Romans 11 says Gentiles are grafted into the Olive Tree/Israel and we don't support it, but Israel is the root that supports us), then I have absolutely nothing supporting me, nourishing me and giving me life! Trees, interestingly enough, in scripture are like people. As Psalm 1:3 says, we are to be "trees planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither." What kind of tree/person is it that doesn't wither? The verse beforehand tells us that it is the one whose "delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night."

My fear is that many, like me,  have tried to support and nourish themselves apart from their Hebrew roots, apart from Israel and the Olive Tree. It is an impossible endeavor which only leads to death! I too have done this, unknowingly, for many years of my life as a believer. After 25 years, I am finally able to say that I am fully embracing my heritage and feel fully rooted in my faith! What an incredible experience this has been! There are no words to express it all, but I will say it is invigorating and refreshing. I feel alive in ways I have never felt before.

So, this wilderness place that Adonai took me too, while painful and traumatic, turned into the most life-giving, truth-imparting trip of my entire life! I stand amazed at His incredible love and faithfulness to me. He is all sufficient, able to meet every need. What an incredibly loving heavenly Father I have! Oh, how He loves you and me.