{"id":877,"date":"2012-01-06T23:51:47","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T23:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/?p=877"},"modified":"2012-01-06T23:51:47","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T23:51:47","slug":"life-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=877","title":{"rendered":"Life in the Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/01\/2012\/life-in-the-desert\/desert-scene-near-the-arizona-border-in-southern-utah-ut567\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-882\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-882\" title=\"desert-scene-near-the-arizona-border-in-southern-utah-ut567\" src=\"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/desert-scene-near-the-arizona-border-in-southern-utah-ut567.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever asked the question &#8220;why is this happening to me?&#8221;\u00a0 Many of us have asked that question when we are going through difficult times in our lives.\u00a0 We ask God why is this happening?\u00a0 Why do I need to go through this?\u00a0 I like to call the tough times in our lives desert experiences.\u00a0 Both Mathew and Luke record Jesus&#8217; time in the desert at the beginning of His ministry.\u00a0 Jesus spent 40 days alone, in the desert, abstaining from food, noise and any distractions.\u00a0 Jesus used this time in the desert to get closer to God.\u00a0 Often times when we are in a desert in life, we focus so much on our situation that we miss what God has for us.\u00a0 Maybe the question shouldn&#8217;t be why is this happening to me, but what are you trying to teach me or how can I grow as a result of this?<\/p>\n<p>If our perspective is right this is what can happen in our desert experiences:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>We can recognize that God will sometimes lead us into seasons of growth.<\/li>\n<li>We can fight battles and overcome temptation to take shortcuts.<\/li>\n<li>We learn discipline and to depend on God.<\/li>\n<li>We are broken of self-sufficiency and self-promotion.<\/li>\n<li>We find our mission or purpose.<\/li>\n<li>We gain a new perspective.<\/li>\n<li>We are prepared for the next phase of our vocation, ministry or calling.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>God will often use the difficult times in our lives to chip away at the rough edges and develop our character.\u00a0 The main thing God wants from us is our love and dependence on Him.\u00a0 When we work through the difficulties and issues of life with our focus on God and not our problems we can emerge from the desert with new life and energy.\u00a0 Often times God works through people and when we reach out to the right people in times of difficulty we can learn, grow and change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Have you ever asked the question &#8220;why is this happening to me?&#8221;\u00a0 Many of us have asked that question when we are going through difficult times in our lives.\u00a0 We ask God why is this happening?\u00a0 Why do I need to go through this?\u00a0 I like to call the tough times in our lives &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=877\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Life in the Desert&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,10,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change","category-personal-growth","category-spiritual-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}