"I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest..." (Job. 3:26).

When trouble is afoot, questions follow on the heel.  Job queried well: "Why? What have I done?  Have I sinned?  How long?  Oh, that the Almighty would answer me!"  

Who has not asked these questions and made these requests?  Have you noticed how God often does not give specific answers to our respective questions? It is not that the questions we ask are too small, but perhaps the answers we seek, are.  The thing is, we question wildly when inching our way through the wilderness on a footpath, but often where we want His reasons, He wants our restoration. 

God knows wilderness questions know not tame answers.  To the heart, rent and questioning, He will give nothing less than all-of-life answers to our real-life questions.  Is it tidy?  No.  Defined, faithful, dependable, even cultivated and careful?  Yes, by Love.  Shall we be more like Christ at trail’s end?  Then we shall start realizing how much He loves us.  Isaiah Fifty-three trailheads for many.

He gave us His love that we may love Him.  We may love those we’d rather not only because we have His love.  We may forgive only because we have His forgiveness.  We may have peace only because we have His peace.  While reasons seldom are given in the wilderness, restoration is for aye and always for those on the spoor of love, forgiveness and peace in the wilds. 

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands” (Psalm 92:4).

The works of God reflect who He is.  When we triumph in His works, we declare His lovingkindness and faithfulness.  From beginning to end God is loving, kind and faithful; and from morning to evening it is good to declare it as so.  Declare God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness and you will be found to declare every good thing He has established and to triumph in it.  Nevermind when you and I have been loving, kind and faithful or done anything good, on this it is good to be mute; but regarding God, it is good to declare.  It is good to declare in the morning.  It is good in the evening.  It is good every hour in between.  It is good because it is the language of triumph!

The triumph has to do with God’s great works.  May nothing but the works of God’s hands elicit from us such declarations, and may no small nuisance or large trial expropriate what triumph is yours and mine.  We may triumph that God has planted us in Him to flourish, and  through the works of His hands, we shall.  We may triumph that when we grow old we shall still bear fruit, be fresh and flourish, for God's work is so.  We may triumph over instability, for the hand of God has made us like a palm tree that weathers hurricanes.  We may triumph over timidity and weariness, for God has made us like the majestic and durable cedars of Lebanon.  His lovingkindness and faithfulness establish what we cannot.  His works are all the reason we need to give thanks and sing praises to His name and declare His lovingkindness and faithfulness all the day long.  It is so good!

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

"So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory" (Psalm 63:2).

Pilgrim feet have oft trod,

Stumbling through desert sod.

Hid the way, by thorns driven;

Hedged the path by light of heaven.

God's pilgrim, soul and flesh,

Seek Him in His wilderness.

It's His, and here sanctity wild

Is refuge for the pilgrim child

Whose heart leaps and trembles to see

God in awesome majesty.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth” (II Samuel 23:3-4).

Who is like this over me?  Christ, certainly.  Who wants to be like this over others?  I, for one.  How?  By rehearsing in my heart what truth is scripted across the sky every morning.  What is that?  The Light following darkness often stained crimson; the rising Son; the deep heights of God’s love; the cloudless expanse of eternity; the new life; the bright hope after rain; new mercies every morning.

These are truths so familiar to us that we feel them, but we must speak them in our hearts throughout the night hours and seasons.  Those who know the script by heart have rehearsed it by moon glow and star shine, the only light given in darkened times.  Those who know Truth have neither by darkness nor rain been overcome, but they have been overcome by light, mercy and hope.  They are those who see God’s bright touch upon every drop of rain.  Should they look down, they see the living color of God’s glory reflecting in the puddles; should they look up, they see the full spectrum of God’s inscrutable light, prisms arching over them, a promise.  They are overcome by God’s righteous rule, and come over others with it.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“Arise, let us go from here. I am the true vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser” (John 14:31-15:1).

Jesus had just told His disciples of many amazing comings and goings: “My Father and I will come; the Holy Spirit will come; I am going away and coming back to you; these things I have told you are coming; the ruler of this world is coming; let us go.”  It was enough to trouble the disciples, and I imagine, enough to cause them relief when they heard abide-in-the-vine language.

Though inexperienced with fruit-bearing vines, the flowering vines covering the front of my house remind me daily of my true home.  My true home is in the True Vine, and here I abide, a branch.  If through all the cosmic comings and goings in heaven and on earth the True Vine trembles nary a twig, then here I gladly abide and trust the abilities of the Vinedresser.

It is something wonderful to be a branch in this vine. The branches of this vine draw life from Christ.  They bend low not beneath the weight of the world, but (how beautiful!) beneath the weight of His love and peace.  Just a branch?  Yes, just a blessed branch!

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it" (Genesis 28:16).

The story goes that Jacob was travelling to Padan Aram to marry one of Laban’s daughters.  More than a day’s journey, we are told that when the sun had set Jacob decided to find a place to lie down to sleep.  He pulled up a rock to lay his head upon, stretched himself out on the ground and, I imagine, mentioned the purpose of his trip in his prayers that night.

Certainly, he logically prepared to overnight.  With the commonest of sense, he found a suitable place, as natural as the ground and as ordinary as a rock, to sleep on.  There he became unmistakably aware of the presence of the Lord and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

This brings to mind others whose stories speak the same theme from places as normal as a wedding feast, on old well and a boat in stormy weather. Once they knew where the wine came from, the servants at the wedding at Cana could well have said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”  After speaking with Jesus at the well, the Samaritan woman essentially said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”  After hearing Jesus say, “It is I,” as He approached the boat in the storm, the disciples too would have said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 

It seems to me that while water has never been changed into wine in my kitchen, some of the best meals have come from near-empty cupboards.  Is the Lord not involved in this?  And what of those daily places where Jesus reminds me to drink from Him?  And what of the storms which buffet my boat?  I would rather not be in a storm in the dark and four miles from shore, but the Word, “It is I,” assures. 

Most of our daily preparations, decisions and doings are as automatic as the setting sun and as normal as dirt, yet in these earthy places, heaven is at hand.    At day’s end we can lie down and say, "Surely the Lord was with me in all these places, and I did not always know it." 

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“…but also if you say to this mountain, ’Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will done” (Matthew 21:18-22).

A hungry Jesus had just withered with a word a fig tree with no figs.  I don’t know why, except, perhaps, to bring graphic imagery to mind when we think about prayer and fruit that nourishes His body.  When the disciples saw it, healthy one day withered the next, they marveled, “How did it wither away so soon?”  Then Jesus said to them, “If you have faith, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.” 

I have wondered about “this mountain.”  Where did the mountain come in?  Weren’t they talking about a fig tree?  Perhaps Jesus is referring to the fig tree He just withered.  A fig tree is very large, but even larger is what this dead, figless tree stands for.  It stands for everything fruitless in our lives that must be put to death.  Scripture says, “Put to death uncleanness, immortality, evil desires, covetousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language and lying.”  These are mountainous!  They are put to death no other way than by Christ saying, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”  If we share Christ’s hunger for fruitfulness, then we will have appetite to ask Him to wither what is fruitless in our lives, no matter how flourishing it looks.  We have His word that He will, so let’s not marvel when He does.  Immediately pray its removal, to be cast into the sea, before it becomes an object of sentiment. 

As sometimes happens when I meditate on God’s Word, I dreamed it.  I saw no fruit behind a flourish of large green leaves.  In the dream I knew they represented selfishness.  “Wither it, Lord!  Wither it!” I woke praying.  Now, “Remove this mountain and cast it into the sea.”

Christ’s divine power gives all that pertains to life and godliness.  If these things are yours and abound, then you will be neither barren nor unfruitful.  When Christ weaves His fingers though the foliage of your life, does He discover figs?  Is the body of Christ being nourished by the fruit of your life?  Has the fruit become so ripe, full and sweet that it simply falls into His hand?  He will feed it to His body.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig