What Does the Bible Say About Gratitude in the Wilderness?
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. . . I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. . . Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me” Psalm 63: 1, 4 7, 8.
David was in the wilderness when he wrote this psalm. And his attitude of love and praise and dependence on God is the reason he got out of it. And eventually became king.
To read the entire psalm click here.
What Does the Bible Say About Gratitude in the Wilderness? Plenty.
If the Israelites would’ve had this kind of attitude, they too would’ve made it out of the wilderness. And into what God had promised them.
Both David and the Israelites had promises of future blessing and glory.
But it was their attitude in the wilderness that would determine whether they would see the fulfillment of those promises.
David continued to love God when he had no physical provision. And had to rely on Him to meet his every need.
The Israelites allowed their present circumstances to destroy their faith. And turn their hearts against their God.
You Don’t Hear Songs of Praise from the Israelites
You don’t hear praise and thanksgiving and professions of dependence upon God out of their mouths.
Instead, they lost all hope and chose to grumble and complain. They opted to shake their collective fists at God.
“That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?. . .Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?‘ And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt'”Numbers 14: 1-4.
If David would’ve done this, he would’ve died in the wilderness just like they did.
The reason the trials of the Israelites destroyed their faith rather than cause it to mature is because their hearts were shallow.
Because of this, their trials, which are represented by the hot sun, scorched and withered the roots of the seed.
The Seed Is the Word
The seed is the word of God.
“Some [seed] fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. . .
The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” Mathew 13: 5, 6, 20, 21.
If their hearts would’ve had depth, like David’s, that same hot sun would’ve caused their faith to ripen and mature. It would not have had any adverse effects on the roots of the seed.
“Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” Mathew 13:8.
If we don’t have depth of faith, we’ll never make it through the wilderness with it intact.
That’s because the two primary characteristics of the wilderness are hot sun and little rain.
What Does the Bible Say About Gratitude in the Wilderness? A Lethal Combination
This is a lethal combination for seed in shallow soil.
The seed will quickly be scorched, wither and die because it doesn’t have enough soil to protect it.
Simply put, we will not continue to be obedient to God’s word. We’ll give up when it gets hard if we lack depth in our soul.
But there is a way to get depth if we’re shallow.
And that’s to be plowed.
But that’s another blog post.
Speaking of another blog post. . . to read another post that’s goes into some detail about “plowing”, see Benefits of Discipline in the Bible.
Or, for another one similar to What Does the Bible Say about Gratitude in the Wilderness, see How Overcoming Sin Keeps You Safe.
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