These seasons of wilderness are filled with doubt, confusion, reluctance, and loss of identity. But, through diving into the Word and learning about who He is, I've learned that I've been focusing on the wrong thing. My prayers were filled with me, my and mine instead of you and yours, God. Scripture isn't about us, it's about God. Through focusing on who He is instead of who I am, I realized that I needed to remind myself daily to refocus on Him.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and protector of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne.
Hebrews 12:2
So as we fix our eyes on the Lord and not ourselves or our circumstances, it's important to start back at the beginning
Genesis 3: The Fall.
The crafty serpent met Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The serpent questions and twists what Eve knew was the truth about God. Sound familiar? What is the serpent twisting in your heart right now?
Then Eve sees the forbidden fruit through a new lens set up by the serpent—good and pleasing to the eye. What lens are you looking through, God's or the serpents in this season?
After both Adam and Eve eat the fruit verse 7 says their eyes opened and saw that they were naked.
Immediate shame overcame them as they made coverings for themselves.
Then, the Lord called and asked, "Where are you?" (V 9)
Adam admitted that they were afraid because they were naked, explaining why both of them hid.
But then the all-knowing and all-loving asks, "Who told you that you were naked?"
This hit me.
Ask yourself, who told you that you were too busy to dive into the Word?
My excuses to not taking time was always the busyness of life.
Between homework, family time, and my not so lenient schedule, I just "didn't have time."
After reading Genesis 3 again and again, I realized that I have no right to say that I'm too busy for the Creator of my life AND schedule.
In verse 21, God then makes garments of skin for Adam and Eve—even though He knew that being naked wasn't shameful. He comforted them.
Being busy clouds our judgment, just as being naked clouds Adam and Eve's judgment.
We focus on ourselves and not our God.
And through this doubt and loss of focus, He still comforts us and has the best in mind for us in every season. Reading the
Bible should be your non-negotiable. It's your refocus in the thick clouds of doubt.
Instead of reading the Bible on my "free time" I started to free my schedule for the Bible.
But when would I have time? How are we supposed to free our limited time?
In Matthew 4, Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Do you know what He did? He recited Scripture from memory and put Satan to flight.
So, first—If Jesus goes through wildernesses, so will we.
And, if Jesus had to recite Scripture from memory because it was engraved in His heart, how much more do we have to do it?
Out-truth the devil with the full armor of God's truth enveloping you.
In Mark 1:35-38, in the midst of building up the beginning of His ministry, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Jesus let the Lord lead Him because He knew that He had been connected to His Father before anything else. So, if Jesus got up early, prayed, and connected Himself to the Lord, how much more do we have to do it?
"You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."-Deuteronomy 11:18
Engrave Scripture in your heart so that in this wilderness, you can bind them as a sign on your hands that the Lord is holding.
Let the truth of Scripture be frontlets between your eyes that Jesus guides.