The Barren Places

God can speak to the places in our lives that are barren.

This barren place was once impregnated by hope until an terrible event or experience in life dealt a death blow to it. All that seems left is a desolate, waste place in our soul. We sealed off our hearts, letting no one not even God near it, for its too painful. We can't even put words to the deepest longing in our soul. It's the Shunammite woman who was told by the prophet Elisha that she would have a son. Her pain and longing was so deep her response was to reprove him for lying (2 Kings 4:16). God will not lie to you. What He promised to do for you in the barren places will happen.

This barren place is true for men and women.

It's the barren woman's eyes that drift to a father holding a newborn in his arms. She has to look away because of the sudden stab of pain in her gut. Or the man, who has a secret, of being molested as a boy and is afraid to fellowship in church with other men because he feels angry and ashamed. When one of them tries to shake his hand or pat him on the back, he feels sickened, yet so alone and wants to reach out for friendship. It's the teenager caught up with friends that go from one party to the next. She's bright and carefree, but where she really wants to be is at home with a mother. A mother who had abandoned her years ago.

To Abraham and Sarah, God fulfilled his promise with the birth of Isaac. Later, Isaac believed God will produce a child through his barren wife Rebecca (Genesis 25:21). And this is the word Hannah had embraced when God gave her Samuel.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19, NIV).

God can spring up a new thing in our lives that may be wasted, a desolated and howling wilderness. We might have had a part to play to why we are barren - spiritually, emotionally or physically. Why would God visit us in these broken and lifeless places in our hearts? Because God gains the greater glory when He takes nothing and makes into something beautiful. No one could claim it had come from their own abilities or strength.

A prayer for the barren and the broken (the power of God will rest upon you as you pray from your heart in your own words):

Jesus, go to the deepest place in my heart. Visit me in this desolate, broken place. Heal my heart, even now, touch my mind. Forgive me for resisting you when all you wanted to do is heal me. Restore my soul and bring life to this place. I forgive those who have wounded me, spoke hateful words and treated me unkindly. Oh, God come now, take my heart and let it be yours forever. Walk through the walls of my soul, come now, and enter into this place with your light and truth. I want to be made whole, I want to be free, I want your presence in my life. I receive now your touch and believe that you will help me. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.