Breadcrumbs from God
How God Rescued Me from the Wilderness
by Tera Balog
“Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” —James 1:21
The movement away from being aligned with God’s truth was gradual and deceptive, and before I knew it, I had spent over twenty years in a wilderness outside of Christianity.
I was Little Red Riding Hood walking into the woods with the best of intentions. The trail I started on was my Christian faith, a straight path aligned with the will of God. Life on either side was filled with beautiful trees: the allures of culture, self-love, and New Age mysteries. These concepts had been planted along my path by people I loved and trusted—people I believed wanted only the best for me—but they were deceived. They were “false prophets, who [came] to [me] in sheep’s clothing but inwardly [were] ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15).
In the middle of the forest, it was difficult to differentiate one tree from another. All the self-help books, guided meditations, and energy-healing modalities blurred together, and I jumped from one to the next. I had come to believe the lies in other people’s words and built my life around them. My longing and desire to understand myself and the world was insatiable. I knew that truth grew at the edge of my fingertips—if only I could dig deep enough to grasp it. The Jesus I knew in the wilderness was on this path with me, a fellow traveler who had reached the pinnacle of oneness with “the Divine.” He had achieved mastery, and I longed to be like him. My “Jesus” was not real, but the lies whispered by the wolves were thick, and they clouded my ability to see.
My dwelling place was no longer in the arms of God but in a dark and overwhelming forest where I thought I could survive on my own. What was implanted in me was not light but darkness. I didn’t know that my ways were wicked, that God’s words were not those I focused on with my eyes, listened to with my ears, or spoke with my mouth. I was filled with anxiety, bouts of fear, and intermittent deep sadness. Dark wolves of deception began to devour me, and just when I could no longer see the light, God came to my rescue.
In his infinite wisdom, God began dropping breadcrumbs on my path. And this time, instead of being led deeper into the forest by a nefarious wolf, I was rescued from it by a redemptive Savior. God placed new teachers on my trail, shepherds instead of wolves. He led me back to the book that could give me all the answers I sought––the Bible. As believers, we are told to “enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13–14). I had been on the wide road to destruction, but the Father showed me the way back to the narrow gate.
When I could no longer see the light, God came to my rescue.
Jesus redeemed me, but I was still being sanctified. I had to “put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness,” and it was up to me to continue “[receiving] with meekness the implanted word” (James 1:21). My walk of faith along the narrow path had truly just begun. I was saved and freed from the penalty of sin but had to be steadfast to abide in God’s love (see John 15:9).
So many aspects of Western culture attempt to lure us off course with promises of a more fulfilling and freedom-filled life, but true freedom lies in living how God created us to live: in his image. Letting God’s Word dwell in us means we spend time reading the Bible, memorizing verses, and allowing it to change our hearts, words, and behaviors. We invite God in again and again because even though he lives within us as believers, we are still tempted to act outside of his will.
True freedom is found in living
how God created us to live—in his image.
The pressures of this world are immense, but the peace that a relationship with Jesus offers is immeasurable. I pray that God can use my long and arduous journey through the wilderness, living in captivity to darkness, as a deterrent to others to avoid similar pitfalls, to point them to “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). May we keep our eyes focused on the only true and lasting path to peace—Jesus.
Tera Balog, PhD, is a wife, mother, writer, and passionate pursuer of Jesus. @balogtera
Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
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