man in the wilderness
A wilderness experience is not palatable. Many at times you go through unpleasant situations and endure a lot of discomfort, trials and temptations. You pray and it seems as if prayers are not answered. Then you begin to ask series of questions – why am I in this situation? Why is God not doing this or that? Because you couldn’t find the right answers, you become frustrated both physically, spiritually and emotionally. As a believer, if you are in this kind of situation for too long, you might just be going through a wilderness experience.
 
Wilderness experience, however, is for a good purpose. In Deuteronomy 8:2 we see three-fold reasons why a believer might go through wilderness experience: (1) humility purpose; (2) test his faith; (3) to know what is in the believer’s heart. That said, but why does God want to humble you? Why is He interested in testing your faith? Why does He want to know what is in your heart? Well, God’s ultimate intention for allowing you to go through wilderness experience is for your good. Let’s discuss this more.

HUMILITY PURPOSE

God wants to humble you for many reasons. Prominent among them is to preserve your soul (Prov 16:18). Pride brings destruction and your maker does not want you to perish. Remember that Satan and his rebellious demons fell because of pride and they are doomed to perish in the last day. Because God loves you, he will do everything possible to humble you – if need be with wilderness experience. Another reason why God wants to humble you is because He knows that humility brings riches and honour (Prov 22:4). God wants to enrich you, but he knows that when riches come, pride comes as well and destruction follows. Thus, God needs you to learn humility before He makes you rich so that you will not fall away thereafter. 
Wisdom: If you are passing through a wilderness experience, learn humility quickly so that your wilderness experience can be cut short. God is waiting is waiting to lift you up if only you can humble yourself (James 4:10).

TEST (PROVE) OF FAITH

Why does God wants to test your faith even when you’re going through difficulty and challenges? The ultimate intention is to promote you (Psalm 75:6-7). We Christians are students of our Teacher, Jesus Christ. No student gets promoted unless they are examined. Examination brings promotion. Daniel’s faith was put to test several times (Daniel 1:8-12, 2:1-28) and each time his faith was tested he got promoted thereafter (Daniel 1:19-20, 2:48). Jesus test even His disciples (John 6:6) as well. As a true child of God, you are not exempted. If God allows the devil to tempt you, He will also provide a way of escape for you (1Corinthians 10:13). Remember, however, that the ultimate objective is not only to see whether you are still standing in faith but to promote you. 

Wisdom: Beloved watch and pray. Have a great attitude to people and things because you never know the day that crucial examination will come.

TO KNOW YOUR HEART

Your heart is very important to God because as the scripture says (Prov 4:23) ‘out of your heart are the issues of life’. A further look into the scripture reveals that from your heart comes salvation (Romans 10:10) and all forms of evil and defilement such as fornication, adultery, theft, murder, pride and destruction (Matthew 15:18-19). An unregenerated heart is full of wickedness (Jeremiah 17:9) and no wicked person will inherit the kingdom of God. God knows all these and does not want you to be a castaway, he needs you for his kingdom both on this earth and in heaven. As a result, He wants to know what you’re hiding in your heart – love or hate, faith or fear, evil or good. 

Wisdom: If you are going through a wilderness experience, I suggest you do a self-examination of your heart today and see if there is any evil, unforgiveness, hate, etc, cast them out so that the blessing of God can come upon you. Jesus says “blessed are the pure in heart…” (Matthew 5:8).

ARE YOU SAVED?

If you are reading this but you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it means you are not yet saved. To be saved, you will need to allow Christ to be the Lordship of your life so that God can be your helper. If you are ready, these simple prayers of salvation will guide you. Please do it today. Tomorrow might be too late!  

Thanks for visiting Christian Devotions and Resource Centre. God bless you



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