Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled Desert Places was written by Alison Keita.

When I was a young believer, I thought mountaintop experiences were where I would meet Jesus.

But those highs rarely lasted or led to growth.

Author Lena Abu Jammra says it's in the desert places where we meet God and grow.

In her Bible study through the desert, she writes,

God's aim is to use the desert places in our lives to make us stronger.

She continues,

God's goodness is meant to be received in the midst of your pain,

not proven by the absence of pain.

It's in the hard places of sorrow, loss, and pain that God helps us to grow in our faith and become closer to him. As Lena learned, the desert is not

an oversight in God's plan, but an integral part of our growth process. God led many Old Testament patriarchs to the desert.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had wilderness experiences. It was in the desert that God prepared

Moses' heart and called him to lead his people out of slavery. And it was in the desert that God

watched over the Israelites' journey for 40 years with his help and guidance. God was with Moses

and the Israelites each step of their way through the desert, and he's with you and me in ours.

In the desert, we learn to rely on God.

There he meets us, and there we grow.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 2 verses 1 through 7.

Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea as the

Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seer.

Then the Lord said to me,

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