My Flesh May Fail...but God

The difficulties the Israelite people endured in the desert were meant to be a strengthening tool that equipped them for a good and fruitful life. If only they had listened.  “God led them through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought them water out of hard rock. He gave them manna (the bread of angels) to eat in the desert, something their fathers had never known; God did all this to humble and to test them so that in the end it might go well with them” (Deuteronomy 8:15-16).

Likewise, God takes us through our own desert experiences in which He uses as tools to equip us. We may face financial uncertainty, challenging children, a stressful marriage, difficult family relationships, unanswered questions, health issues, etc. You can fill in the blank of your present condition ____________.

However, if we respond to these conditions in humility, God fills our tool belt with endurance, faithfulness, new vision and perspective for our destiny in life, and fresh insights of Who He is. If we use these experiences (while difficult) for us, we come out refined and armed for the next experience. Each experience provides us with undying instruments (instruments of heavenly power vs. earthy might) that help us forge forward in victory.

The challenge is that many of us falter under the circumstances and conditions we face. Just like the Israelite nation, we choose not to learn, instead we choose to forsake God’s teaching and satisfy our survival with man’s wisdom. And we wonder why we find ourselves returning to the same desert experience over and over. Why? Because we refuse to learn.

On the other hand, there a few that has the courage and humility to bow to God’s disciplines in life and see them as treasures not waste. They see them as opportunities not obstacles. They use them to better their Christian life not hinder it.

God is faithful, this we can always count on. Often in these desert times, all we have to go on is God’s trustworthy character. We can look to Who He is so that in the end we become more like Who He is. We see what He sees, do what He does, and face uncertainty with faithfulness and power.

Our faith in God does not always remove the difficult emotions we feel, for Asaph writes in the Psalms of the many challenges he faced and he was quite transparent in his disposition, but one thing was different. Asaph wrote, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).  His focus was different. His trust was in God not his conditions not even in his hopeful relief. He recognized that even though his heart was overwhelmed, God was sovereign over his heart not just his condition.