The River in the Desert

 By: Joanne Viola

“Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19, NASB)

I had been looking at the verse for a few days, pondering how it would speak to my heart. It began to settle on three words:

1. Doing. He is doing a new thing. “Doing” means that He is making or creating that new thing. His reason? To show us His faithfulness.
2. Awareness. We need to perceive what He is doing. The problem lies with our lack of awareness of His activity. May He give us eyes that see and ears that hear. May we be willing to see and hear. He asks the question of us, “Will you not be aware of it?”
3. Change. He is making a way and bringing about a change – a change in circumstances. A change in us.

God is in the habit of causing new growth to spring up in places we do not expect to see growth. Notice that the place in which He makes the way is “in the desert” and “in the wasteland”. In neither place would we have high expectations of growth or production. Yet our God chooses those very places to demonstrate Himself to us. Perhaps good questions to ask ourselves today would be:

“Where is the desert in my life?”
“Where is the wasteland?”

For it is in those very places that we need to be aware our God is fully able to work –

in the midst of pain,

in the midst of hopelessness,

in the midst of uncertainty,

 in the midst of rejection,

 in the midst of loneliness, and

in the midst of unmet desires.

In those very places, He desires for the answer to spring up. He desires to bring about a new thing in our lives. He is able to make a way where there is no way. Scripture tells us the very reason He responds to us in this way:

“The people who I formed for Myself will declare My praise.” (Isaiah 43:21, NASB)

Today may we perceive Him. Today may we see what He is doing around us. Today may we see the way that He is making. And today may we proclaim His praise!

Today may we see His river in the desert.

 

Image by Alex Hu from Pixabay