Wilderness --Mark1:1-20

Mark 1:12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness."
Mark 1:4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

It seems to me that wilderness is a significant place in the Bible. Like Moses, David... Some physically, others emotionally, spiritually.

I've written two posts before about the wilderness or desert: Allure, The death of a seed. It took me a lot of years of pain and experience to write these two posts, so please have a read.

Apart from the things already explained in those two posts, I'm trying to gather some more thoughts about the desert.

. It's a place of different life style.
Simon and Andrew had a fishing career, but when Jesus called them, they dropped their business and followed Jesus. Everyone has a certain way of lifestyle. Moses lived in the royal palace. I'm sure it was a big difference between living in the desert and living in the palace. There must be a big readjustment and reshaping of life. He had to learn all the new survival skills.

.It's a place of reeducation and reformation.
Moses spent his first fourty years being educated in the royal house. He had established some value system in his mind. Desert is a place where God reestablish His value system in Moses.

.You look different.
"John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey." Was that an Australian Idol fashion? But why "all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem;"?
Don't worry about your awkward look or language(Moses lost his speech talent after 40 years, I'm sure he was trained as an eloquent speaker in the royal school.) Nobody has make up in the desert. But God will give you something that's really attractive: something that's not entertaining to look at, but something that will change people's lives.

. It's a stressful place, and faith is the only strength that sustains us and sees us through.
It's a place that the devil is given permission to tempt us. We're allowed to fail as human beings, and if we do we'll be under the torturors, but we're also given another chance through repentance.
It's a slow cooker. We won't be able to get out until we're cooked.
Faith won't grow overnight, it takes a long time to grow and mature.

. We're not alone in this lonely place.
Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit first, then was impelled to go to the wilderness. He looked alone, but the Holy Spirit was always there. When you feel lonely and painful, don't forget that the Holy Spirit is close by your side. Ask Him and He will help you.
Joyce Meyer said, if you've left is you and God, then you got to know Him really well.

. There's hope at the end.
After the wilderness, Jesus was fully released into His ministry. After the quiet 40 years of Moses' desert, there's glory, miracles and victories. You'll be rewarded, big time! It's all worth it when you look back one day.

. Be grateful for the desert, but don't stay there too long.
There's a purpose in desert. But there's also a time. There's a time for desert, and there's also a time to go out of the desert. Some people have lived in the desert for so long they are getting the desert mentality and they don't want to get out any more.
No! You don't belong to the desert for a life time. When it's the time to leave, change your outfit, go out and get a life!

. The skills you learned in the desert is a treasure for the rest of your life, and a treasure to benefit other people.
Sometimes you might look at your life in the desert and sighed as it looked as if you've achieved nothing, but it's really like going to a college or get a PHD degree. It'll pay back later on.

. Desert makes a person's life complete.
If Jesus needed this chapter in His life, we'd need it,too. It makes our lives full and complete in the whole picture.