“Thus says the LORD, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness” Jeremiah 31:2

At Home in Waste Places

Wilderness – Not everyone finds grace in the wilderness.  God says that His people, the ones who have survived the sword, the ones He calls Israel, find something unexpected in the desolate wasteland.  They find grace.

Imagine the joy of finding what your soul longs for in a place where no man can survive!  The wilderness, where we know we will die on our own, is God’s playground of grace.  Why?  Because grace is for those who know they cannot survive without it.  Grace does not arrive in the midst of affluence.  It is not found in the air-conditioned, video-enhanced, amplified and opulent monuments to what we can do without the Spirit.  Grace comes to us, powerfully, personally, in the desolation of our lives.  Grace is a partner of desperation.

The amazing fact of life is that we are all desperate.  We are all desolate.  We all are in need of the sustaining Spirit.  But we will not all find grace in our wilderness.  Grace is for those who survive the sword.  Who are these people?  They are the ones to whom God says, “You shall be my people, and I will be your God”.  Surviving the sword means putting your life in the hands of your God as the world slices away at you.  It means cutting loose from the patterns that block your way into the wilderness.  It means standing unafraid in the face of hardship, pain and death.  It means that God is the Lord of my life no matter what circumstances I may encounter.  It means worshipping Him even if He doesn’t save us from the furnace or restore us from disaster because He is worthy of my allegiance.

Some will flee the wilderness.  They will seek remedies for self-protection.  They will turn from the call to cut away the patterns of a world in rebellion.  They will say, “I wish I could live by faith, but I have to be practical”.  They do not know that grace resides in empty places.  Mercy comes unexpectedly, not by religious incantations or magical name formulae.  Mercy is unmerited surprise.  But you can’t be surprised by something that you plan and control.

Where are you today?  In the wilderness, feeling the pain of the sword?  Or are you comfortable in the city made by men?  Where will grace encounter you?