{"id":338,"date":"2017-06-27T12:08:35","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T12:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=338"},"modified":"2017-06-27T12:08:35","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T12:08:35","slug":"desert-isnt-punishment-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/06\/desert-isnt-punishment-preparation.html","title":{"rendered":"The Desert Isn’t Punishment; It’s Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Imagine a dead end job with no ladder to climb, no objectives to achieve and little to no interaction with other coworkers. Now imagine that this job is well out of cell phone and internet coverage and so you don’t have that trusted appendage, your cell phone to occupy your time. Now imagine that this dead end job was your entire career, the forty prime-earning years of your life. Depressed yet? Congratulations! You just imagined yourself as Moses!<\/p>\n

After growing up in a life of privilege and opportunity in Pharaoh’s household, Moses becomes a fugitive because of a murder charge and at the age of forty finds himself\u00a0living in the desert of the Sinai peninsula herding sheep. A prince of Egypt is now watching sheep eat grass, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, you get the picture. But what Moses might have seen as punishment God saw as preparation. In his desert experience, Moses was being emptied of himself and learning humility, because you can’t expect God to fill you up until you’re emptied of yourself. Deserts are great for that. And although Moses didn’t know it at the time, God knew that the people of Israel would soon need a leader who knew the ins and outs of how to survive in a desert for long periods of time. The desert wasn’t punishment for Moses; it was preparation.<\/p>\n

What desert experience do you find yourself in? What forgotten corner of the world do you feel like God’s left you in? Do you feel left on the sidelines of life? Do you feel that God is silent? Are you fruitlessly searching for significance? You’re in a desert. But don’t see the desert as punishment; see it as preparation. God is emptying you of yourself so He can fill you up with Himself. God is using the desert to prepare you for your destiny, so make the most of the desert while you’re there.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: What desert do you find yourself in? How can you bloom in the desert?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine a dead end job with no ladder to climb, no objectives to achieve and little to no interaction with other coworkers. Now imagine that this job is well out of cell phone and internet coverage and so you don’t have that trusted appendage, your cell phone to occupy your time. Now imagine that this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[201,177,203,202],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-desert","tag-moses","tag-preparation","tag-punishment"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Desert Isn't Punishment; It's Preparation - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you feel left on the sidelines of life? Do you feel that God is silent? Are you fruitlessly searching for significance? You're in a desert. 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