Tearfund Lent Devotional Day 3

Ways in the wilderness

‘I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.’ (Isaiah 43:19, NIV)

We have all been through times of wilderness. Times of uncertainty, of challenge, of doubt. Times when it has felt as though there wasn’t a way out.

In the Bible, the wilderness is never the end – but it can become a means to an end.

It is not only that God makes a way in the wilderness, but that the wilderness is the way.

It is in the wilderness that we learn, that we grow – that we let go of what might be holding us back and take hold of what might take us forward.

That is not to say that the wilderness should be celebrated. Pain and sorrow are real, and shouldn’t be turned aside from or covered up. Yet we can take heart from the fact that God is there in the wilderness with us – making ways, creating streams of life, preparing us for something new.

God of the wilderness, help us to hold on to hope in times of uncertainty, difficulty and pain. Thank you that the wilderness itself can become the way. Lead us, God, lead us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Gideon Heugh

Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist