Life hurts in many different ways; through disappointments, disease, loss of loved ones, betrayal, or financial disasters like losing a job. We live in a fallen and broken world, a world that aches and every one of us at some time or another will feel the hurts of life. Have you ever had a best friend betray you? Or how about the time you pulled an all-nighter studying for an important exam and still failed it? Do you know someone who has walked through the anguish of a miscarriage or an abortion? Have you ever worked diligently and faithfully at your place of work expecting a promotion and lost out to a coworker? This list is endless…

Life is not an injury-free sport.

The pain and the anguish of this journey called “life” somehow seeps deep down into the recesses of our hearts and beats us down day after day. Some of us can let the tears flow and find relief while others buy into the lie that we don’t feel those things.

The author of Lamentations finds himself immersed in the tragedy and pains of life. To better understand the real circumstances of that time we have to know what it was like during the final days of Jerusalem before King Nebuchadnezzar breached its walls. The days before the destruction of Jerusalem marked the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words about the coming famine, pestilence, and sword. They were dark days full of terrors and horrors.

So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. —Lamentations 3:18–26 (NIV)

So many times we find ourselves in the tough places in life because we choose to do things our way and simply do not listen to God. Assuming that these tough places of life begin with our failure to listen to Him, we continue down our path of self destruction and then we encounter the loving discipline of God.

We cry out, “God…HELP!”

Then God, who is always with us, is suddenly revealed through our current circumstance and we somehow come to that place where we begin to see and experience the loving, comforting warm embrace of our Heavenly Father. The outlook on life for the author of Lamentations saw God pushing him to despair before revealing joy and goodness. God loves us so much that He will not hesitate to push us into a corner to make us face the utter misery of our current circumstances because only after we’ve confronted our misery can we appreciate His comfort.

Just when it looks like you are faced with an unimaginable disaster God somehow, turns our desperate situations into an opportunity to really get to know Him and His peace and joy begins to fill the atmosphere of our circumstances. It’s indescribable. Many times I have found my time in the wilderness a very desolate and lonely place.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. —Psalms 142:3a (KJV)

It’s during these times when we feel that no one cares, and it’s impossible just to get through the day, but then He comes to us. He embraces us with the warmth of His arms and comforts us with His presence. It literally surrounds and consumes us in a way that makes this temporary experience of isolation worthwhile. I once read that you can define loneliness as the surprising opportunity to really have an encounter and truly know God. The wilderness is a lonely place of discovery, a place that you will find a deep revelation of who God really is. As the darkness closes in around you, be of good cheer because there is hope beyond the night. God is here to pick you up and hold you close.

In the wilderness, He forces us to draw deep upon His grace to survive.

Remember, we will stay in the wilderness with God until He has accomplished what He wants within us. Although not at first, I have learned that the wilderness is not a place to fear, but a place that you can hear God’s voice like never before. It is in the wilderness that He can reveal himself to you in awesome ways. It is here that your intimacy with Him grows. It is here where the rushing wind of the Spirit of God will smash the idols in your life and cast out all of your foes. It is here you will experience the spectacular reality of the one true living God and you will see that He is a loving God that so desires a relationship with you!

Remember every road that GOD led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. —Deuteronomy 8:2 (MSG)

Written in the pages of the book of Hosea, God would lead Israel out into the wilderness and court her far away from all of the distractions so He could speak clearly to His children. Even though His people went astray to worship other idols, in His great mercy He spoke tenderly to His people wanting to restore His relationship with them and to change what had been a time of great difficulty into a day of hope.

This winepress of God is designed to make us more Christ-like, to make us a mirror reflection of His Son. He wants to ripen within us the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I began to realize that one way He accomplishes this is by putting us into situations that are completely opposite of the fruit He is trying to ripen. I also discovered that more often than not, one’s suffering and brokenness amplifies our helplessness and truly exposes our need for a Savior. Jesus, when He later spoke with the formerly blind man, described His mission this way: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind.” —John 9:39 (KJV)