"Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." Deuteronomy 8:2
My husband and I have been in a wilderness season for the past two years. My husband has been looking for his next job opportunity. As a transitional pastor, his work is mostly contract-based. This means he is at a certain church for only a short time. Once the contract runs out, he waits for the next opportunity. While we entered this next assignment in the hope that there would always be another church waiting after the contract on the former church was completed, that has not always been the case. Recently, we've been waiting for his next assignment, but the gap between jobs has gotten longer. My husband and I relate this period to a wilderness, a time when God seems silent on an issue that seems very important to us.
Although wilderness times are never pleasant, they are good for our spiritual growth. Moses brought the Israelites through the desert in the wilderness to get to the promised land. The Israelites complained about the food God provided and the time it took them to reach their destination. They also complained when surrounded by their enemies and feared for their lives.
Although we may never be called to enter the wilderness like the Israelites, we have our own wilderness periods. These are the seasons where our finances are tested, or when test results come back less than favorable. We can also enter wilderness seasons when our children walk away from God, and we wonder if they will ever return. Although it is tempting to separate ourselves from God during these wilderness times, God does not want us to do so. Rather, he wants us to become close to him, trusting him for our every need.
The above verse reminds us that wilderness periods are not only times when we question whether God is truly near us, but also times when our hearts are tested. When we feel distant from God, our real selves appear. The quickest way to discern what is in our hearts is to identify ways we cope when times get tough. Do we run to the fridge when God feels distant? Do we binge-watch endless amounts of television? Do we go shopping online in the hopes of filling the emptiness in our lives?
Have you ever been in a wilderness season where times got tough? What did you do about it? Did you run to God, crying out to him in the hopes that he would take care of you? Did you rely on coping mechanisms that are acceptable (or unacceptable) in society's eyes to help you get through the tough season? God uses everything in our lives for a reason. Every moment of pain, confusion, and chaos is used to form our character. God wants us to come away from these seasons being more Christlike.
He wants us to run to him, trusting in his every provision. He also wants us to react as Jesus would: manifesting the fruit of the Spirit to everyone we meet. Just as we enter various wilderness seasons in our lives, God is faithful to bring us out of them as well. In everything in life, there is a season. There are good times and bad times. No good season of life lasts forever; no bad season in life lasts either. Yet, all those seasons are there for a reason. We can choose to allow those seasons to shape us, or we can try to erase them, using all types of coping mechanisms to assuage our fears and anger about our situation.
What is important is that a wilderness season produces humility. It is difficult to remain prideful when everything in your life has been stripped during wilderness season. Often, he'll strip away any form of security we have that is built on anything other than God. He will take away our finances, our health, our relationships, our ministries, and anything else that we may be using to distance ourselves from being intimate with God.
God desires intimacy with his children. He brings us to wilderness seasons, so that when we are done, we come out humble and full of Christ-like character.
Father, let us rejoice in the wilderness season. Let us be people who run close to you rather than distance ourselves from you. In the end, may we be formed in Christ-like character and exude humility as we seek to spread the gospel to the nations. Amen.
Photo credit: © Unsplash/Averie Woodard
Related Resource: Instead of Doing More This Summer, Maybe You Need to Do Less
If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.
Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.
Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.
I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
Originally published Monday, 22 June 2026.
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