A Place in the Wilderness
A Place in the Wilderness
It sure is quiet out here... yeah, and just a little scary, too!
If you ever find yourself in a “wilderness time,” you’ll be among a great company of others who’ve been there before you. Moses, Jesus and Paul, for instance. Even Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness before they finally entered their inheritance.
A modern example of wilderness experience is Mother Teresa. She wrote, “...the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul." She also said that within her heart "the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear."
What is a Wilderness Time?
A wilderness is a hostile environment, raw, undeveloped territory where wild animals live, a place not friendly to human existence. Unlike a city or town, where systems of protection and provision have come into place, a wilderness can challenge your very survival to the core. In Elijah’s wilderness time, “he went into the desert... came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die” (1 Kings 19:4).
There are certainly different degrees of wilderness experience - maybe Profound wilderness, Moderate wilderness, and Wilderness Lite - but all wilderness times have these similarities:
Some measure of isolation and loneliness,
Feelings of weakness and inadequacy,
Wrestlings with fear, self-doubt and abandonment,
Feeling unproductive and insignificant, and
Lack of outward comfort and encouragement.
Maybe yours is not as dramatic as Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, or as Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. But in the sense that a wilderness represents a time of being exposed to a hostile environment, where things happen over which we have very little control, and with little support from others, every wilderness is challenging.
The Purpose of the Wilderness
Does God have reasons for us experiencing wilderness times? In Deuteronomy, we learn that there are three purposes to these abnormal experiences.
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deut. 8:2-3).
Why wilderness times? God wants to humble you, to test you, to teach you. Or summarizing, he wants to deepen your trust and dependence upon him and his word.
To humble you. Especially through wilderness times, God will help us to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought (See Rom. 12:3). Without this humbling process, it is so common that when God does finally bless us, pride will raise its head and want to take the credit. “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (Deut. 8:17). In your wilderness time, let God humble you.
To test you. Just like a test in school where we are graded, a wilderness time will reveal what’s in our hearts - what we trust in, what we find our identity in, what is really important to us.
In my twenties, I went through a month-long program of survival training in Colorado. It was designed to bring each participant to a point of stress in order to face us with our own strengths and weaknesses. They watched us, evaluated us, and gave us a “report card,” which, they said, would give us confidence in our inherent strengths and help us be aware of and work on our inherent weaknesses. It took deep challenge to deepen our knowledge of who we were. God has the same thing in mind when he ordains a wilderness time for us.
These tests reveal our priorities - what it is that we’re living for. What are the real things we value - what are the things we really love and treasure. Our words may tell of what we think we ought to value, or love. The wilderness is God’s “stress test” to make known what lies beneath the words.
Israel’s wilderness time revealed unbelief, idolatry, whining, immorality and putting God to the test. (See 1 Cor. 10:1-13). Face courageously what comes up to the surface!
To teach you. Wilderness times are teaching moments. What do you think the primary thing is that he wants to teach you? It is to live by every word that comes from his mouth (Deut. 8:3). His words must become our life. And that’s not an easy lesson to learn. This is a process. We put a lot of confidence in our own opinions and judgments, and considerably less in God’s. That needs to be flipped. Let your wilderness time teach you how desperately you need God’s Word - written and spoken.
A Place in the Wilderness
Is there any comfort to be found in the wilderness? Maybe not to the degree we desire, but here are some reference points that can help us keep perspective.
Acknowledge that God, not the devil, appoints wilderness times for us. It is said of Jesus that he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1).
Remind yourself that even though God’s presence may be veiled, he is there with you in your wilderness time. It’s a time of walking by faith, not sight.
Remind yourself that God’s purposes for your life have not been suspended in the wilderness. In fact they have probably been accelerated. It’s like roots going down deep in the winter. It’s a hidden work. Perseverance produces character (Rom. 5:4).
Don’t prolong your wilderness time because of hardness of heart. Learn as quickly as you can what the Lord is trying to teach. Israel unnecessarily extended their wilderness from two years to forty because they were unwilling to trust in God. (See Num. 32:13.)
Pray for a wilderness buddy or two. “Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men” (Jer. 9:2 KJV). There’s no fellowship like the fellowship of sufferings. Ask the Lord for someone with whom you can talk about your wilderness time. And make yourself available to those who are experiencing their own wilderness.
Take heart, God is doing a work to get you ready for something. Jesus walked out of his wilderness “in the power of the Spirit,” and began his public ministry. Israel finally left their wilderness to enter the land that was promised them, a land without scarcity. God is preparing you for something that you couldn’t have occupied without a time in the wilderness.
_________________________________
Click here to Comment • Click here to receive Bits & Pieces.
Click here for a pdf version • Feel free to share with others • Come visit us