Trusting God in the Wilderness

Posted on March 17, 2024 Updated on August 7, 2025

Disbelief, the antithesis of trust. It is a survival tactic of sorts and serves as a cushion. If you disbelieve and things go wrong, you’ve already prepared yourself for the disappointment. This along with distrusting God, having an I’ll believe it when I see it mentality, and impatience, are all survival tactics that can prolong your stay in the wilderness season of your life.

As stated in the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. Oftentimes, when you come out of a prolonged season of distress, oppression, and, or persecution, God gives you a season in the wilderness.

The wilderness, contrary to my belief before completing Media Alert, is not a bad thing. But it is a period of time and a set of circumstances that God uses to teach us to rely on Him. For example, if you relied on self-motivational quotes to get you through the previous season, God uses the wilderness to teach you to rely on His word and depend on Him totally in the wilderness. God also uses this time to allow you to grow into what He’s going to bless you with and where He is taking you.

The challenge then is getting out of survival mode and pulling yourself out of being in a constant state of fight or flight. These are day-to-day mentalities that don’t give much consideration for what God wants you to do.

For the Christian, living in survival mode can look like getting a good word from the LORD and then the enemy stealing that word and replacing it with thoughts of what could go wrong next. What follows is their reaction to those thoughts. As a result, they remain in a constant state of anxiety.

The children of Israel serve as a good example of this. They were faced with harsh working conditions and eventually the Pharaoh at the time issued an order to kill Israelite boys at birth only allowing the girls to survive because he was terrified of their increasing population. The psychological trauma they went through in Egypt was brought on by seeing things that they believed as potentially fatal or as having the ability to cause major physical harm to themselves or others. In Dialogue in Clinical Neuroscience, Jonathan E. Sherin and Charles B. Nemeroff note that events, which are frequently accompanied by profound fear, terror, and helplessness, might cause the development of and are necessary for the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

It was not long before their helpless way of thinking caused them to mistrust God. This is demonstrated when the children of Israel inquire of Moses as to why he sent them to die in the wilderness rather than in a burial in Egypt. Soon after, they expressed their mistrust once more by saying, “If only they had died in Egypt by the LORD’S hand where they sat around pots of meat and ate.” When they remembered they could eat whatever they wanted in Egypt, they accused Moses of leading them into the desert so they would perish. 

The enemy uses a similar tactic on us today. He influences us to murmur and complain over what we do not have. As a result, our wilderness season is prolonged, just as it was prolonged for the children of Israel. 

The word murmured comes from the Hebrew word, Yalan which means to worry, grumble, complain, or fret. If you want to make it out of your wilderness season, murmuring, complaining, and rebelling is not the way to go. Coming up against leaders, as the children of Israel did to Moses and Aaron is not the way to go. 

It is also important to be mindful of how we ask God why. The late Theologian and Pastor, R.C. Sproul said it best, “Remember how you ask that question. The word “why” can be an honest question or it can be an accusation.” Notice how the children of Israel asked why they were brought into the desert and assumed it was to die. Their question essentially accused God. Now, it is true that their accusatory nature may have been developed through the circumstances they faced in Egypt, and going into the wilderness only brought that out of them. But after God proved Himself to the children of Israel over and over again, growth and a maturing of attitude did not occur.

I would like to pose the following questions to conclude. How many times has God proven Himself to you? Has He not brought you out again and again?

Then do not grieve the Holy Spirit by murmuring and complaining like the children of Israel did. When you find yourself about to murmur and complain, replace those thoughts with when and how God brought you through in the past. Worshiping Him is another better alternative.

Learn from the Israelites and don’t accuse God with your whys. Instead, ask, God, what do you want me to learn from this situation? How should I view it? Am I missing the mark because of my point of view? How should I look at these circumstances? Is there something that you need me to do in the midst of this situation? Is there something that you want me to accomplish? God, how do you want me to grow from this? 

Also, giving too much attention to the enemy is not the way to go. Yes, it’s true that 2 Corinthians 2:11 states that we are not unaware of satan’s schemes. But remember who is in control. Consider for a moment if you will Job and how the enemy had to ask for God’s permission to remove the hedge from his life. From this, we see that the devil can’t do anything he wants to do. Which insinuates that God allows things to happen to us. But what we must remember is that He allows it for a purpose. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11 that God knows the plans He has for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us plans to give hope and a future. God is not in the business of doing things to us to harm us even though some circumstances seem harmful. 

Trusting God in the wilderness requires us to ask God the right questions. It takes you out of having a pity party for yourself, and it gives you an attitude of gratitude. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 puts it this way, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The bible says be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Knowing God has allowed this thing to happen in your life, and knowing that God’s plan is to prosper you and not to harm you, as well as give you hope and a future, certainly should transform the way you look at circumstances. So find joy in the wilderness, knowing that God will provide for you and that you are no longer where you used to be.