THE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE

This oft-coined phrase describes a believer's time of testing. There is a strong sense of being isolated from that which is familiar. Daily routines and personal relationships no longer provide comfort when you are led by the hand of God into the 'wilderness'. 

It is there that the cares of this life appear to be more intense and overwhelming. Your weakness is exposed as you wrestle with the weight of it all. Hurtful memories haunt your troubled mind. Strong feelings of shame and regret darken your path. Heartfelt prayers go unanswered and you feel adrift without an anchor for your soul. God seems distant, and uninterested in what you are going through. 

There are several biblical examples of people enduring this 'wilderness experience' ...

1. After their miraculous escape through the Red Sea, the children of Israel were tried in the wilderness ... And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. (Deuteronomy 8:2)

2. Job suffered in a spiritual wilderness as his faith was tested. He was stripped of everything including his family, possessions, and health ... I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You regard me. (Job 30:20)

3. Jesus Himself was tested ... Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. (Mark 1:12-13) 

There may be times when you struggle to simply survive from one day to the next. Financial, material, physical, relational, and emotional burdens press on you as your flesh cries out for relief. You feel alone in your pain as you wait upon the One in whom you have placed your trust. 

Know this ... the wilderness experience is to mature you in your walk of faith. Your earnest prayer for sanctification is being answered. 

Paul put it this way ...We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed - always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)

There are wilderness times for every believer. The testing of your faith is a sign that you truly belong to the Lord. When you feel completely detached, emptied out, and broken ... He sees it and reacts. 

Your soul is refreshed and your confidence in the sufficiency of Christ grows as you submit to that which God has purposefully allowed.