{"id":21661,"date":"2017-11-11T00:05:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T08:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=21661"},"modified":"2017-11-07T14:38:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T22:38:38","slug":"november-11-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/11\/11\/november-11-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"November 11, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/p>\n

“I took care of you in the wilderness, in that dry and thirsty land.” \u00a0<\/i>Hosea 13:5<\/p>\n

Dry and Thirsty Land<\/b><\/h2>\n

Floyd and I have always loved the desert area.\u00a0 The dry warm air, the stark beauty, the peace and serenity\u2014it always blesses us.\u00a0Some of our favorite times of refreshment and restoration have been in the U.S. southwest desert.<\/p>\n

Of course there’s the flip side of the desert\u2014the intense heat, times when it’s too dry, the lack of shade on a hot day, wind storms that coat everything with sand, and the fact that amenities are few and far between.\u00a0The desert isn’t always “easy.”<\/p>\n

One of the things that has always amazed us is that in the midst of dry, barren, dusty, empty desert areas, there is suddenly the beauty of new life. I don’t know how they do it, but flowers pop up in those intolerable conditions.\u00a0The land can be dry, cracked even, and then out of nowhere comes a gorgeous flower\u2014or whole fields of them.<\/p>\n

On difficult days that I’ve walked through on this journey, I alternate between feeling like I’m in the desert or in the midst of a flood.\u00a0I’d say most days it feels like a desert. I feel the “heat,” the dryness, the barrenness.\u00a0I wonder when the rain will come, where the shade is, when there will be a rest stop.<\/p>\n

I find myself looking for my “flowers” in this desert I’m walking through.\u00a0They’re there!\u00a0One person said there are “flowers of joy growing in the soil of adversity.”\u00a0So very true.\u00a0There is beauty to be found in adversity, but we have to ask God for eyes to see it.\u00a0And we have to open our hearts to receive it in the midst of dry times.<\/p>\n

I’m so grateful that in the midst of this long, barren journey there has been wonderful new life\u2014\u201cflowers of joy.”\u00a0God has been so gracious and kind to me in providing that. The path I’m walking on has been a “soil of adversity,” but God has brought refreshment, beauty, and new life.\u00a0He’s so faithful! “The Lord your God has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness\u2026 you have not lacked anything.”<\/i>\u00a0Deuteronomy 2:7<\/p>\n

I’m so thankful that God walks with us through the desert wilderness.\u00a0It may be a dry and thirsty land, but God washes over us with His grace and strength.\u00a0I keep looking for my “flowers.”<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, we lift before You the names of those who are walking through a dry and thirsty land. Would You, who controls the refreshing waters, rain on them and bring them joy, abundance, and beauty again. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5Dn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21661"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21666,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661\/revisions\/21666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}