Treasures in the Wilderness 1: Dependence on God, episode 69

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at when you love a prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey. Did you get some good help from our guests the past two weeks? Did the wisdom and grief from Dana Russo encourage you and help you? Did Tom Yoey's clarifying words give you some insight with your prodigal and on your journey? Today, we're going to begin a series of four parts on treasures in the wilderness.

0:42 I know you don't usually go looking for treasures in the wilderness, but they are there to be found, especially in a prodigal wilderness. So be listening for a treasure that you have discovered in your wilderness experience with your prodigal or grab on to what I share as something that becomes a treasure in your journey. Now, I am not a wilderness person. Hiking and climbing, though I enjoy the views and the woods, I can't breathe.

1:22 So I'm not very fond of that. There are creatures in the wild and that makes me a little nervous. When I lived in Southern California, we lived right on the edge of a real wilderness, and they have lots of rattlesnakes there. So I learned how to calm my concerns about that. I had made sure they heard me coming. So I would walk around where they might be resting and clap my hands or sing, anything to make sure those snakes knew I was coming, because then they would disappear or not bother me.

2:04 People laughed at me often, but the snakes left me alone. The woods behind our house here in Florida is called a conservation area. But in reality, it's a swamp. When we first moved here, I was a little uncomfortable, because in that swamp, there were alligators, wild boars, armadillos, possums, and, oh yes, snakes. Now, I've gotten used to it and so far no harm has been done. But getting used to crossing the bridge over Lake Jessup, north of Orlando, was harder for me. As you probably know, there are alligators in every lake and retention pond, and they're everywhere.

2:50 If they get big or aggressive, the officials come and remove them from populated areas and put them in Lake Jessup. Now, Lake Jessup is a beautiful lake, and it has a long low bridge going across it, low sides of the bridge, that is. I understand there are about 20,000 alligators in that beautiful lake. For years, I wasn't about to drive on that bridge. I would go a longer way to get somewhere rather than drive across that bridge with the very low sides. Now, I've gotten used to it and I pray as I go, and that's how I'm able to do it.

3:36 So clearly, I am not a wilderness girl. So I find it amusing that God dropped me into a real wilderness, a prodigal wilderness. In the early days of our prodigal journey, when things with our son were just beginning to be challenging, I thought I could solve it all by myself. I could handle it. When they are young, you do a lot of different things trying to make sure they grow up in the right way and make good decisions. And you have fun family times. You make friends with neighbors and neighbors' children that you can know.

4:19 And you get them in a church youth group. You have some already some good boundaries and appropriate consequences. But as things got harder in our case, we went to counseling and that didn't help much either. And at school, well, let's just say I got to know his teachers and I got to know the school counselors and the vice principal and the principal. And eventually, they were going to tell him to leave the school. And so that's when we put him in a residential program, which was challenging and wonderful.

5:01 And I've talked about it before. It was a good decision and really helpful, but it wasn't easy to go through that. When our wanderer was older after he'd been in the program and actually met Jesus there, we realized when they're 18, well, actually when they're 16 and get a driver's license, you've lost control because they can tell you what they're going to do and then they do whatever they want. And I guess now you can follow them on phones better, can't you? Well, I didn't have that. So we just had to instead of setting rules all the time, we really had to work to try and use our love for him and the influence we could have in this life to encourage better decisions.

5:51 Sometimes that worked and other times he just resisted. If nothing changes, that prodigal wilderness just gets denser and denser and we become desperate. And that's when something wonderful happens. Something wonderful happens when we get desperate. Yes, because we recognize that our only hope is in God and we are driven right into his loving arms. It happened to me. I said, help, Lord, I am desperate. I can't do this anymore. I'm not able to bring about change.

6:34 And my heavenly father just reached out like with loving open arms and welcomed me. He listened to my cries, even put my tears in that bottle that he keeps for each of us. He accepted my anger and there was that. He acknowledged my fear, which was very real and reasonable. He captured my tears. He received all my desperate pleas. When I was ready to give up, he held me up with his victorious right arm. Isaiah says, don't be afraid. I am with you.

7:15 Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isn't that a wonderful promise? But still, desperation is wonderful. It is if it causes me or you to recognize our own inadequacy, our weakness, our powerlessness, and turn to the one who is more than adequate. He is strong. He is powerful. That one, our God, is gratefully willing to share his power with us.

7:59 Listen to these gifts that he offers us, treasures to be found in the wilderness. From Romans 15, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians, Paul says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. And again, in Second Corinthians, chapter 12, but he said to me, that is God, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.

8:49 Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me. In Ephesians 3, Paul says, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through the Holy Spirit in your inner being. We may not have the strength outwardly, but God's Spirit in us can give us supernatural power. And in Ephesians 3 later, now to him who is able to do immeasurably more, my husband translates that as above and beyond, above and beyond, above and beyond, all that we can ask or imagine according to his power, that is at work within us.

9:47 Do you hear that? I mean, that's one of the most important promises you'll find in scripture. I'll read it again to you. Now to him who is able, that's God, to do immeasurably more, and then that's got a four-time multiplier in it, far beyond, way beyond anything that we can ask or imagine. Think of what you've asked God for. Think of what you wish and imagine could be true. He says, beyond all of that, according to the power that's at work within us, he's always working in us. What a treasure we receive as we exchange our own self-dependence for total dependence on our powerful and loving God who shares his power with us.

10:42 Does that give you hope for something that could happen in your relationship with your loved one? That you have godly power to live out what God is like in pursuing, in reaching out, in loving, in caring for that one you love. So what about you? Are you still trying to do it yourself? Or have you become desperate enough to depend on God for all you need on this journey? God bless you.