When I was younger the word 'wilderness' had a wonderful connotation - rugged, untouched places, with bald eagles and whitewater canoe trails through the north woods of Wisconsin.
After reading the Bible a few times and watching the Ten Commandments movie, the word 'wilderness' has a much bleaker meaning.
The wilderness of The Bible is synonymous with a period or trial or time of testing.
God made His people wander through the desert wilderness for 40 years until an entire generation had passed away. Only then did God allow His people to enter into His rest - The Promised Land.
Have you undergone a period of testing in YOUR life? A wilderness of the soul? It can be a very trying time. But what are we to learn from our trials . . . our time in the wilderness?
I was talking with a friend he other day about his Thanksgiving. He told me that who they were seated at the table each one took turns telling the others what they were thankful for. My friend's son said that he was thankful for the difficult time his family experienced this year. Why?
He was thankful because the hard times brought his family closer to one another. Their time of testing made them stronger.
Are YOU thankful for times spent in the Biblical wilderness? Do we lean on God when times get tough? If we fully trust in God, we will have fewer trials to go through. And the trials we DO experience won't seem nearly as bad . . . if we trust on The Lord.
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” - Matthew 4:1-4
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