When the Wilderness Whispers

Discovering God’s presence in the places that feel forgotten.

The wilderness has a way of stripping away what doesn’t last.

It’s the place between promise and fulfillment, where comfort runs dry and control is no longer an option. Most of us resist it. We pray our way around it. But sooner or later, God leads each of us through it—because there are lessons in the wilderness we can’t learn anywhere else.

The Israelites wandered there for forty years, not because God had abandoned them, but because He was forming them. The wilderness was not a detour; it was the classroom.

And it still is.

“Sometimes silence isn’t God’s absence—it’s His preparation.”

When the noise of Egypt fades and the promise of Canaan still feels far away, that’s where we learn to listen. That’s where dependence is born. When the familiar falls quiet, the whisper of God becomes clear.

In the wilderness, God taught His people how to trust manna for today. Not tomorrow’s provision, not yesterday’s leftovers—just what was needed for this moment. It was a daily dependence that reshaped their faith.

Our culture tells us to escape discomfort. But the wilderness teaches us to endure with purpose. It reminds us that growth rarely happens in green pastures—it happens in dry ground where roots must reach deeper to find water.

If you’re walking through a wilderness season right now, take heart. You are not lost. You are being led.

The same God who guided His people with cloud and fire still walks before you. The silence you hear may not be distance—it may be invitation. He is calling you closer, teaching you to hear His whisper above the wind.

When you emerge from the wilderness, you won’t be the same. You’ll come out with a quieter confidence, a steadier faith, and a deeper understanding that God doesn’t just meet us in the promised land—He meets us in the desert too.

Because sometimes, the wilderness is where we finally learn to listen.

— Rich Van Doorn