a prayer for when you are in the desert by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. The Lord your God has blessed you

and everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness.

During these 40 years, the Lord your God has been with you and you have lacked nothing.

Deuteronomy 2 7. As we see in this verse, God shows us who he is by what he does. We see his promises

worked out in the lives of his people and know that the same God is working in our lives.

When we are in the middle of a desert trek, God's hand seems absent, blinded as we are by the glaring

circumstances. But when we emerge from that leg of the journey, we can look back and see that God

has watched over our every step. The journey was hard and went on longer than we thought we could

bear. But here we stand. All the way through the desert, just when we thought we couldn't last

another day, God's mercy met us in some observable way, a kind word, an unexpected provision,

or a chance encounter. The assurance of his presence always came. The desert has things to teach us.

We learn things there that we can't learn anywhere else. We see the careful provision of our father

in a different light. His love stands out in stark relief against the background of the desert's

barren landscape. In the wilderness, we come to the end of ourselves. We learn in new and deeper ways

to cling to him and wait for him. When we come out of the desert, the desert lessens stay with us.

We take them with us into the next stretch. We remember the God who led us through the desert,

and we know that he is with us still. Desert times are fruitful times. Though they seem barren,

lush fruit is being produced in our lives when we walk through the desert. The Lord will sanctify

your desert times and make them to be fruitful in your life. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I know that wherever

I am, you are with me, guiding, protecting, providing. You make a mountain into a way. You make

streams flow in the desert. You cause a root to grow out of dry ground. Thank you for giving me the

opportunity to see you work when all hope seems lost. In Jesus' name, amen.

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