Day 5: Preparation in the Wilderness

Anticipation can be exciting, exhilarating, euphoric. It can also stir anxiety, confusion, and staleness in faith. Doubts and questions perpetually arise within: “Can I trust you, God?” or “Are you even there anymore?” Trusting in God’s timing is really challenging — His immeasurable will is incomparable to the finiteness of human experience. The wilderness can often feel like we are wandering alone, absent from the Father’s presence. How do we steward those times when our circumstances feel like a wilderness, and we’re not sure how or when God could move?

In Daniel 5, King Belshazzar is writhing in fear after a crazy supernatural encounter — fingers writing on a wall. His color changes as his “knees knocked together” (v6). In many of our own experiences with the supernatural, whether it’s a dream, vision, or word from God, our first instinct can often be fear. Last February, the Lord revealed a new professional path to end my current role, and take a chance on going to law school. This meant leaving my job and studying for the law school admissions test. As I entered into this season of trusting and waiting, I had no guarantees that it would work out. I prayed the Lord would prepare my heart and sustain me in this time. I was anxious that this risk would not reap a harvest, questioned the soundness of His calling, and even doubted what I heard from Him. When has God asked you to take a risk you had no idea how it would play out?

Daniel lived in a wilderness of exile in Babylon. He didn’t know what would be next for him under foreign rule. Yet he remained faithful to the Lord. As I endured my own season of waiting, I began to spend more time with Christ by structuring prayer, scripture, and worship as pillars of my day. This created metamorphosis in my life from the inside out. I started to notice spiritual nudges to share the heart of Jesus to those around me, through acts of kindness at the grocery store, praying for friends and family, and setting His commission as my own priority.

Daniel was called to interpret what the King saw on the wall, and he was unaware that the Lord had been moving behind the scenes. If he could interpret what was written, he’d be promoted to be third in command (v16). While he did not know God’s direction for his life in exile, Daniel chose faithfulness and obedience, which ultimately prepared him for what was next.

What if instead of anxiety in the unknown, God is fostering preparation for what is next in your life? Where is He asking you to deepen your relationship with Him? How could this season actually shape you now, for what might come next? I was just accepted into law school, and now I know how to witness to others once there because of what I learned in this preparation season. God’s purpose for me is not just to have a new career, but to make disciples in this field.


PRAY:
Lord Jesus, we thank you for Your faithfulness. As we wait, we pray for strength to rise. Search our hearts, O God. Reveal to us how we can know you deeper. Grow our trust in you. As we seek to foster our relationship together, transform our lives to be about YOU. You are the King, and we trust in your mighty hand. Your will be done, even when we are anxiously doubting. Amen.