The wilderness experience

I was going to write about something totally different, but was prevented from doing so. Instead, I felt led to write about the wilderness experience many of us have gone through or are going through.

1. The wilderness experience happens to all true followers of Christ. After Christ was baptized by John, He was led into the wilderness for 40 days. (Matthew 4:1)
2. A Christ follower can be full of the Holy Spirit and still be led into the wilderness. (Luke 4:1)
3. Being led into the wilderness does not mean that you are not a child of God, or that He doesn't love you or that He is not pleased with you. It is just a necessary time for you. (Mark 1:11-12)
4. There are promises made to Christ followers that will be fulfilled after this wilderness time. For the Israelites, their promise was that they were to be given the Promised Land. And they were; but not before they wandered around in the wilderness for forty years.
5. There is a purpose for the wilderness. In Deuteronomy 8:2 Moses tells the people of Israel that God led them into the wilderness to humble them and to test them to prove their character and to find out whether or not they would obey His commands.
6. God wants to display His power and majesty to us, by first taking something away or "letting us go hungry" (Deuteronomy 8:3) and then feeding us with something much better!
7. God does not abandon us during our wilderness experience. The same God that rescues us from "Egypt" (slavery to sin), and leads us into the wilderness, can also take care of us in it. (Deuteronomy 8:15-16).
8. The wilderness experience brings us to the end of ourselves. We become humbled and realize that nothing we achieve is due to our own strength and energy. It is God alone who gives us the power to be successful. (Deuteronomy 8:17)
9. We will come out of the wilderness just as the Israelites did and just as Jesus did. However, we must be on our guard for the devil is always looking for another "opportune time" to tempt us. (Luke 4:13)
10. What I see in all my reading about the wilderness experience is that God's ultimate purpose, with love as a motive, is that we learn to trust and obey Him. If we refuse to do this, He considers it rebellion! (Deuteronomy 9:23)