Fruit in the Desert

Hosea 2:14 "Therefore, I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor (Valley of Trouble), a door of Hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day declares the Lord, you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’"

God sometimes entices & brings us into a season that we desperately don’t want to go. It is there that He wants to speak tenderly to us & restore us to intimacy with Him. There’s something about a desert experience that allows all else to quiet down & the voice of God to be clear. And if you look at Hosea 2 it isn’t to chastise, yell at & condemn us but to bring us to a place of fruitfulness, singing & freedom once again. 

The Valley of Achor means Valley of trouble. God says he will make our valley of trouble into a door of hope.

The Negev desert in Israel is a living visual of this truth. It is what once was a dry, desolate desert that has been turned into a thriving vineyard, many of them actually! Much of the desert is now fruitful & a place that draws people to it where it once was just a dry & dreary, it is now full of life & produces fruit! 

There is fruit & life that come from the desert if we will let it do it’s work in us & press into what God is doing in our desert season. May the desert days be a doorway of hope & may it bear MUCH fruit in our lives, for ourselves, our families & all who cross our path. May we position ourselves to hear God’s voice speaking tenderly to us in the desert.