Treasures in the Wilderness
It’s been a while since I last wrote to you all. Many things have been happening that has kept me from focusing on this. Today, I want to share briefly on something that stood out to me in scripture during my studies.
In Luke 4 and Matthew 4, we read that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tempted by the devil after fasting for forty days and nights. You would think that because the wilderness was a place of hardship, Jesus would avoid it. Yet in Luke 5:16, it says that Jesus often went into the wilderness to pray. This made me pause and ask myself, Why didn’t Jesus choose a quiet room instead? Why the wilderness?
As I pondered on this, the answer came to me; Jesus understood the value hidden in the wilderness. Even though it was a place of trial and temptation, it was also where He was surrounded by the glory of His Father.
Today, I sense the Lord calling me to embrace the wilderness periods of my life, those moments filled with trials and temptations, and to see His glory there. My greatest heart cry today is to see His glory in every area of my life, especially in the difficult places.
I have become more awakened more than ever, to the truth that I am greatly limited in life by my lack of true sight and this upsets me.
Isaiah 6:3 says that the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. This passage is exciting and also upsetting to me because whenI read this, I ask myself, if that’s true (and I know it is) why don’t I always see the glory of God on the earth?
I know very well that the answer is that my perspective is often clouded by challenges and difficulties. Because when I fix my gaze on Him, I begin to see His glory everywhere. The Angels who spoke in Isaiah 6:3, could say that the earth is filled with the glory of God, because they were always in God’s presence. His presence is what they were always beholding before anything else.
For this reason, Jesus our Lord, while on earth often went into the wilderness because the same place where He faced great temptations was where He was closest to the Father without distractions.
That is what I long for, to stop running from the wilderness and instead see His glory in it. And to return there often, because in the wilderness is where I know I’m closest to Him. But it also scares me deeply.
With Love,
Ejiro