In the Wilderness

Maybe you feel like God has dropped you off at some remote location—alone—no friends that you know, and you don’t much like the place. It has unappealing plainness, devoid of excitement or happy companionship, and you have done nothing to deserve the exile. You may be experiencing a “wilderness” specifically for God’s purposes, and for no other reason.

Hear what the prophet Hosea (2:14-15, 23) has to say:

¹⁴ “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing[b] as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
²³ I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

In his daily devotional, Faith’s Checkbook, Charles Spurgeon writes,

He promises to draw us apart, for there He can best deal with us, and this separated place is not to be a paradise, but a wilderness, since in such a place there will be nothing to take off our attention from our God. In the deserts of affliction the presence of the Lord becomes everything to us, and we prize His company beyond any value which we set upon it when we sat under our own vine and fig tree in the society of our fellows. Solitude and affliction bring more to themselves and to their heavenly Father than any other means.
When thus allured and secluded the Lord has choice things to say to us for our comfort. He “speaks to our heart,” as the original has it. Oh, that at this we may have this promise explained in our experience! Allured by love, separated by trial, and comforted by the Spirit of truth, may we know the Lord and sing for joy!

As He draws us into the wilderness, He speaks comfort and hope to us. Even though usually we hear the message of hope and comfort from Messiah by Handel at Christmas time, it speaks to us anytime we find ourselves in this wilderness place. Please watch and listen to this video:

(Note: If you cannot see the video, your browser does not have a Flash plug-in.)