With a Subtitle: It is easy to romanticize and dream of future deliverance and breakthrough in tough and trying times.

A brief Excerpt: It is easy to romanticize and dream of future deliverance and breakthrough in tough and trying times.

The Author is: Jaron Alexander

Sometimes, we want specific outcomes from God; other times, we simply want God to show up and just do something — anything is better than nothing.

Waiting makes us weary as we wonder how many more days, months, or years we must traverse through the metaphorical wilderness and dark valley. 

If we’re being honest, we begin to suspect if God even cares — does Jesus desire to deliver us from our pain?

In the face of such hardship, I can confidently say that God will redeem and restore. 

The question for us is often this: How do we walk with hope in places of deep hurt when the healing we long for feels so far away?

Even Here

One of the more fascinating sites on Earth is the Atacama desert. It is the driest, most barren place in the world. Receiving little to no rainfall, it is a place devoid of life and beauty.

Or so it seems.

Almost miraculously, there are rare, heavy rains that change the scenery and the story. What is typically barren and dry is now lush with life, blooming with beauty.

Although the Atacama desert is the driest place on earth, it has received the nickname “flowering desert” from its beautiful superblooms. 

It is a potent picture that points us to God and His power. If the Atacama desert can bloom with beauty, what can Jesus do in our lives when we feel stuck in the suffering of our wilderness?

I fully recognize that’s not the first thought that pops into our minds when we encounter trials and tribulations. 

Walking through the wilderness with wounds and worry, we often wonder if God has led us astray. Does He know where He’s going? Does He know what He’s doing? 

How long must we face the uncertainty, the lack of clarity or closure, and endure the pain of unresolved grief?

I don’t think we need to be afraid to have these thoughts or emotions; in fact, God often invites us to be real and authentic with Him.

But at some point, the rubber needs to hit the road. We can’t live perpetually in the despair of our doubts and disappointment when God has given us a sure anchor of hope to ground us from spiraling out of control [see Hebrews 6:19].

A proper perspective and vision of the character of Christ gives us the confidence to endure those dry days when we are worn out and restless from our pain.

When we look at the Scriptures, we see a strong pattern of God calling people to hope in His faithful character, not after they’ve endured their suffering but when they are stuck in the middle of it [see Romans 5:1–5].

In perhaps a more overlooked part of the Bible, the Lord speaks through the Prophet Joel to His people and says:

Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.

The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. [see Joel 2:23–27].

The passage is a beautiful reminder that when circumstances seem chaotic and desolate, God is active and will bring about eventual deliverance and restoration. He will not abandon us to figure stuff out on our own; He’s already done the heavy lifting. 

So until that day of redemption and renewal from our grief, we wait — and our waiting is never a waste.

Patience is the painful process of relinquishing our timelines, expectations, and outcomes into the hands of God and receiving the grace to trust, wait, and walk with Him.

Every saint is ultimately a person of surrender. There is simply no way around it. 

Easier said than done, of course.

But I think Katie Davis Majors offers us some necessary wisdom on surrender:

I don’t want to surrender my control. I don’t want to let go of my fears, my coping mechanisms, my plans, or my loved ones because I am not sure what will happen when I do. I have to remind myself over and over again that I am not surrendering to nothing. I am not letting these things go for the sake of dropping them and not being burdened by them any longer. When I surrender, when I let go, I am placing all that I surrender into the safe and strong hands of my loving God

She reminds us that we have to come to a place and posture of trust. If Jesus is who He says He is, then He will redeem, renew, and restore us in the barren places. 

Just because we haven’t seen the immediate gratification of our needs, wants, or healing doesn’t mean that God is sitting idly by; He’s always working behind the curtain.

Or, as someone else once said: God is always up to something good. 

There Will Be Blossoms

God can close 100 doors, but He’ll always leave the door open to His throne room.

Our readiness for what’s next isn’t dependent upon what’s known, but who we know: the God who will equip us for whatever He has in store for us.

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Wait upon God in much prayer and you have the promise that He will do greater things than you know of.” 

It is a simple reminder, as the Apostle Paul tells us, that God will do far more abundantly than we ask or imagine [see Ephesians 3:20]. 

What is bleak and barren to us is a garden to God, and maybe — just maybe — He’s working in the waiting, planting the right seeds and waiting to water them for a bountiful harvest.

God works beautifully in barren places. Dry deserts and desolate spaces of deep hurt and suffering are no deterrent to God’s power; they are a perfect stage for His glory.

There’s no spiritual benefit for us to speculate on unknown future outcomes; we seem to always lose that guessing game. Our focus is better served on who God is: His faithful character in our present moment and how He has been good to us in the past.

If God faithfully brought us through all our past pain, He’ll do it again. Why would He stop now?