I thought you might like a little preview of what’s coming from the Bible Study Guide to the Lady of Daldriada. Here is just a taste:
From Session 6:
John 4:10 NASB Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
What quality from the scriptures above do you see revealed on page 136 (second scene of chapter 17)?
It’s easy to trust God when we are walking through a paradise. How about in the desert places?
Poor Anwas (friend of the hero) has been tossed around, backhanded, thrown in a cell, and chained like an animal by the enemy. Even so, he recognizes the loving kindness the Lord who provides water for his thirst.
What the Lord did in this scene for Anwas is such a beautiful picture of the living water Jesus offers us. No matter where we are (in an emotional or spiritual prison; trapped in a lifestyle of sin like the woman at the well), Jesus gives us the clear, sparkling, pure, thirst-quenching water of life. He gives us Himself.
Dealing with grief is like living in a desert all the time. On one hand, everything seems dead, dry, and hot. Everything you touch burns you, because it has been scorched by the sun. Or it pierces your skin like the thorns of a cactus. Everywhere you look, there is the lack of water…
But as I travel through the desert of grief, the Lord Jesus guides me straight to oasis after oasis. He covers me with His wings so that I walk in the shade. He causes springs to come up from the dry ground, and He feeds me with sweet dates from the palm trees.
I meet other travelers there. We talk mostly about how much closer the Lord Jesus is to us here in the desert, than we’ve ever felt Him anywhere else. We start to focus less on how little green grass there is and more on finding others to show them where the oases are.
But it takes trusting in your Guide to live in a desert that you know you’ll never leave. It takes choosing to stay by His side in the shadow of His love and gentle kindness, where you don’t merely survive, you thrive.
Question: What kind of emotional or spiritual desert have you been in?
Application: Take a moment to number the blessings your Heavenly Father gave you in that desert.
Phyllis Keels
The Gifted Writer 