Friday {in focus} ~ Wilderness Oil

As I drove my children to a local pool, I watched as fields of oil drills cropped up on the skyline. It's in that moment God spoke. "The desert's rich with oil. You just have to dig deep to find it." 

I almost couldn't breathe. What a revelation! For someone who recently moved to the Chihuahuan Desert and could only see the barrenness, realizing that there's an abundance of oil beneath that barren surface brought a new hope. 

 We walk through barren wildernesses throughout life. We have plenty of desert experiences where life seems to dry up and our foundations crack. What we fail to realize is that underneath all of that, we have access to the riches of God's kingdom. It's in those desert places that God awaits to fill us with His Holy Spirit and bring us deeper into our relationship with Him; to show us new things we've never considered before; to bless us with an abundance of riches. It's in that desert place where we become who we need to be to receive our inheritance.

~ The Ten Virgins ~
Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming;go out to meet him!’Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

~ Matthew 25:3-4, 6-10