Have you ever stopped to consider the lyrics of the song, Amazing Grace, specifically the part that says, “I once was lost, but now am found…?” In my life, it seems I am often vacillating between being lost and being found. One day I feel completely found, but the next day I wake up feeling equally lost again. It is a frustrating sensation. I find myself wondering if other people experience this same phenomenon, or am I just that easily swayed by the tricks and lies of the enemy?

When reading the Old Testament, particularly the portion where the Israelites spent 40 years wandering around the wilderness on a journey that should have only taken them about 11 days, it occurred to me that the lost and found state of being goes back thousands of years. I have spent a lot of time considering what I am supposed to glean from reading about their journey. There are times when I find myself speaking to them aloud as I read, the way one might holler at the television set during a scary movie, “Oh come on!! Don’t go in there!! Don’t you know something bad will happen to you if you go in there???” I couldn’t understand why the Israelites kept making such poor decisions, especially when they had Moses leading the way and had witnessed so many incredible manifestations of God’s power and omniscience.

Then I heard something Joyce Meyer said which gave me a whole new perspective on their long journey. She said that God kept leading them around the wilderness because He needed to build their strength, essentially preparing them for the tumultuous road they would face once they reached the promised land. He had to prepare them for war. You see, when God finally brought them to the banks of the Jordan River, He let them know the promised land was right there on the other side, but it was up to them to go in and take possession of it. God laid the promised land and all of it’s blessings at their feet, but they had to fight a brutal fight in order to take hold of what God was giving them.

Things are no different for us today. God has a multitude of blessings He wants to bestow on our lives, but we have to be prepared to fight for them. Satan will do everything He can to keep us from being blessed by God and have peace in this life. He spreads fear and chaos in our minds, and takes great pleasure in destroying the relationships God creates in our lives to give us strength, love, balance, and joy. Often times, when we are asking God for something that is incredibly important to us, we do not get it right away. In fact, we may not get it for months, or even years. I’ve come to understand that those waiting periods are our wilderness. God has to prepare us and strengthen us so that we can take possession of the blessing when the time is right for us to receive it.

Think about the things in life that you have had to truly fight for in order to make it real. Perhaps it was a specific job, an educational degree, a physical fitness accomplishment, or even a relationship. Consider things you’ve lost that were deeply meaningful to you… perhaps you lost it because you needed to gain an appreciation for what you had. Perhaps you lost it because you weren’t listening to the guidance God was giving you, and made a decision that had a detrimental result. Perhaps God needed to make room for a different blessing, and He needs your trust that whatever He has planned is necessary for the next step in your journey.

Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.” To me, this means that it is critical that we never stop asking, and we never stop believing that God will bring us the deepest desires of our heart. Our persistence in asking and believing is part of the battle we must face. Satan will work very hard to convince us our efforts are futile. He will have us believe that God is never going to come through for us. We absolutely cannot give in and accept his lies as truth. Anything good and beautiful in this life is worth fighting for tooth and nail. In the song, Through the Fire, written by Gerald Crabb, we are reminded that, “He never promised that the cross would not get heavy, and the hill would not be hard to climb; He never offered our victories without fighting, but He said help would always come in time… Just remember when you’re standing in the valley of decision, and the adversary says ‘Give in,’ just hold on, my God will show up, yes, and He will take you through the fire again.”

So as you wander in your own wilderness, consider the possibility that God is trying to build you up and give you the strength and tools you will need in order to successfully take hold of the blessings He has in store for you. Relish your time in the wilderness and use it wisely, for as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Not all those who wander are lost.”