From the time you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior until you successfully cross the finish line into His physical presence, He has a unique race for you to run. It’s a marathon not a dash.

Sometimes in the process of running your race, you may feel like your circumstances are a desert with no oasis in sight. Remember feelings are just signals about what is going on around you. Feelings are never a sin. No one can tell you how you should or should not feel. Your feelings belong to you. How you respond to the feeling may be a sin.

Things to remember when you feel like you are in a hot and dry place, scorched, in need of His living water.

Jesus Christ loves you with an everlasting, unconditional love! Jeremiah 31:

³The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Jesus Christ promises to run through the desert with you. Hebrews 13:

⁵Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Jesus Christ promises to guide you safely through the desert.

Isaiah 58:

¹¹ And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Psalms 32:

⁸ I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

What is faith? Hebrews 11:

¹ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Why is faith necessary? Hebrews 11:

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Who is Jesus Christ? He is God, good, a stronghold, changeless, consistent

John 1:

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.

³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Nahum 1:

⁷ The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Hebrews 13:

⁸Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Philippians 1:

⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Is Jesus Christ limited by time? NO

2 Peter 3:

⁸ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

What is His purpose for you? Specific works and an expected end

Ephesians 2:

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Jeremiah 29:

¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jesus Christ promises living water

John 4:

¹³ Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

¹⁴ But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 6:

³⁵ And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

John 7:

³⁷ In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

³⁸ He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

³⁹ (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

It is Well with My Soul – Horatio Spafford

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: If Jordan above me shall roll, No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, The sky, not the grave, is our goal; Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord! Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

This hymn was writ­ten af­ter two ma­jor trau­mas in Spaf­ford’s life. The first was the great Chi­ca­go fire of Oc­to­ber 1871, which ru­ined him fi­nan­cial­ly (he had been a weal­thy bus­i­ness­man). Short­ly af­ter, while cross­ing the At­lan­tic, all four of Spaf­ford’s daugh­ters died in a col­li­sion with an­o­ther ship. Spaf­ford’s wife Anna sur­vived and sent him the now fa­mous tel­e­gram, “Saved alone.” Sev­er­al weeks lat­er, as Spaf­ford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daugh­ters died, the Ho­ly Spir­it in­spired these words. They speak to the eter­nal hope that all be­liev­ers have, no mat­ter what pain and grief be­fall them on earth.

Listen and read the history- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_EfDqF7YI

Questions for Reflection?

1) Why do you feel like you are in a dessert?

2) What are the barriers to your dream achievement?

3) Are you in the desert because of a choice? Your own or someone else’s?

4) Is there some amends you need to make?

5) What do you want to say to Jesus Christ?

6) Is something keeping you from fellowship with Jesus Christ?

7) Will you choose to trust Jesus Christ, even in the desert?

Hebrews 12:

¹ Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let us run with patience the race He has set before us looking unto Jesus,

Coach Patti