If there is one thing that I have begun to learn in my relationship with the Lord, it is this: our God is the God of the wilderness. Growing up in Dallas, TX, I can say that I had absolutely no idea of what a wilderness was like. It was not until I was a junior in high school during a week-long backpacking trip in the Rockies of Colorado that I first encountered a vast land that was a wilderness of sorts. Of course, it is nothing like the biblical wastelands described in the book. But it was there in the Rockies that I received my first glimpse at what it meant to be alone in nature, separated from the comforts of life that we too easily grow accustomed to. In reflecting on this first day of this devotional journey, this is what I have discovered:
God loves the wilderness.
In the wilderness, God's power is more easily revealed. When we are living a predictable life, filled with perceived security, it is more difficult to see the power of God--even if we were looking for it. Since God's chief end is to bring glory to himself, he loves the wilderness. It gives him the best possible venue to reveal how in control he is, and how glorious he is. But also, God loves the wilderness because he loves to build a relationship with us. When I reflect on Scripture, God shows an undeniable pursuit of a face-to-face relationship with his people. Think of Moses, who was able to know God face-to-face (paniym) when he engaged him on Sinai. When we enter the wilderness, we give ourselves a unique opportunity to form an intimacy with the Lord that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.
If God loves the wilderness, we should not fear it. When we find ourselves in the wilderness, in faith we should accept that God will reveal his glory and that he is seeking to build a more intimate relationship with us.
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