“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”
Isaiah 35.1
Every one of us has a place in our life and in our hearts where we alone go.
We might be married or we might be be a Pastor who ministers to a large congregation;
we might have a house full of children or a very active social life;
on the other hand we might not have a life at all, so to speak.
Regardless, each one of us has his or her alone place.
And what we are in relation to this solitary place determines more than anything else
what and who we really are.We may have areas in our lives
where others help us and the burden is borne with the loving aid of giving friends-
but as sure as the sun shines, there will always remain
that place where we alone must go.
No one else can go there with us.
No one can help us there.
Others can only point the way.
But let every man prove his own work, and then
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
For every man shall bear his own burden.
Galatians 6.4,5
Now this alone place is like an uncultivated garden.
There is great potential for fruitfulness here.
Or, this place can be barren, unfruitful.
Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish ,
whether the tender grape appear , and the pomegranates bud forth :
there will I give thee my loves.
Song of Songs 7.12
When this place is fruitful and filled with the beauty of flowers,
running streams and fruitful trees, it is easily understood
that this place will be one that someone would choose to visit often;
a beautiful garden of rest, comfort, and refreshing.
We would want to go there and tend to our garden
and enjoy its prosperity, drink in its beauty.
Awake O north wind: and come, thou south; blow upon my garden
that the spices thereof may flow out.
Song of Solomon 4.16
As well, if this secret place is empty and barren, you can imagine
that a person would not choose to visit there
but would avoid going there at all costs.
How many of us book passage to the barren, howling wilderness?
No one in their right mind! We all want to vacation in Paradise Garden.
Now the fact that some, maybe most people, seek to avoid
their own personal alone place is the reason many embrace some form of escapism.
We turn to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, TV, overeating, shopping (hello!)
unhealthy relationships, bars movies etc.
Actually the list is endless concerning the things we will pursue
rather than seek to develop the inner land
that pertains to our own inner life and the garden of the Lord in our innermost being.
How many stay in a bad relationship because to get out means
they would have to face their own place of aloneness?
Many things we do are an attempt to put a hedge
between us and aloneness with the accompanying emptiness and boredom..
We’re all carrying around this empty place within:
that "God shaped void" that came with the “ fall” (see Genesis).
We hate the ‘void’ but verily, this place will be filled- for good or for ill.
You’ve heard that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’.
Well, that truth works on an emotional and spiritual level as well.
Yes, it is true that many people are terrified of being or feeling alone.
They have not realized that this place of aloneness can be a place of great blessing.
To find this blessedness the Lord calls us to lone places,
the Spirit guides us into desert places.
God ordains that some become very familiar with this type of wilderness-
this spiritual place of which we speak.
Let him sit alone in silence
for the Lord has laid it on him.
Lamentations 3.28
And because it is here God brings revelation, it is here also we find intimacy
and fellowship with the Son of God. It is to this place that the Jesus directs us
when he counsels,
When thou prayest enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut the door (when you are truly alone with God),
pray to the Father which is in secret,and the Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 6.6
The promise of heavenly reward is for those who will not be afraid
to shut themselves up alone with God if only for a portion of the day.
It is in this way that the promise is realized,
that we become like a tree planted by the rivers of water
whose leaf will not wither.
Have you ever met a person with withered leaves? Its not pretty.
Its not what God has for those who look within to find that place that,
though it looks threateningly like a desert, God promises to make
like a well watered garden.
And he promises to faithfully to watch over it.
I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment:
lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Isaiah 27.3
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