Matthew 4:1 NLT

'Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.'

We can all probably identify wilderness experiences from our lives. These are uncomfortable places to dwell for any length of time. The wilderness, or desert as it’s sometimes referred to, lacks the capacity to sustain life. So by virtue of my travelling through the wilderness, I must look elsewhere for my well-being. I’ve experienced the barren reality of wilderness through childlessness as well as in the care and loss my first wife,, but it was something of a challenge to discover that God leads us into the wilderness.

Following the high point of baptism, Jesus is, “led by the Spirit” into the wilderness. So wilderness is a critical part of the journey we choose to make with God at his direction. I must make my way as best I can. It is a place of danger, temptation and confusion. My father fought the first part of the Second World War in the Sahara desert. He explained that it was a place that defied normal navigation for there were few landmarks, and shifting sand might completely change the landscape from the day before. It was easy to get lost in its sea of sand.

However, the desert also offers solitude – a space where we can find the reality of God. It might also conjure up our worst fears, where isolation terrifies us. It’s the place in which God nourishes us too, as Israel discovered on the way to the Promised Land. There are the terrors and there are blessings, although I assume not one of us wants to volunteer for the wilderness.

So Jesus is led into the wilderness to face tests that will establish his character and confirm his calling. Confronted by Satan, he must find within himself the revelation required to negotiate these critical tests. Choice is evident; this is a period of essential personal growth. We know that God creates something out of nothing. It’s when I have nothing, lost in the wilderness, that I am encouraged to discover God’s something in my own nothingness.

QUESTION: Are you willing to follow if God were to lead you through a wilderness time?

PRAYER: Lord, even in the wilderness your Spirit is with me. Help me to remember that truth.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT

'That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.'

Led into the wilderness, who does Jesus depend on? I wonder about what Jesus’ inner journey would have felt like. I imagine Jesus, human and tested in every way as we are (Hebrews 4:15), battled with self-doubt.

While all that Paul writes in today’s scripture I acknowledge as true, the experience of momentary troubles feels far more all-consuming than that. In my experience, they test my confidence in God as well as my survival ability. Wired to move from steady state to catastrophe in a single step, my life was lived at the extremes of my temperament whenever trouble struck. Not so today, after learning to trust in God and see life as just one small experience within a far greater picture.

It’s like surgery. The immediate reality is never appetising. Yet the outcome usually gives back so much more than the trauma associated with the medical intervention. There is no way to the overall health improvement that bypasses that intervention; so it is with life. There are storms, and these are for the purpose of refining my understanding of life and eternity. I discover so much about myself and have the opportunity to discover more of the reality of God once forced to move beyond the scripture image or preacher’s carefully crafted portrait. In a world offering me every entitlement to full consumer experience, it comes as something of a shock when the self-styled ‘American dream’ is so far removed from God’s ‘eternal reality’.

QUESTION: How can you fix your gaze on what cannot be seen?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, change my perspective on this life so that I see from the angle of heaven, of eternity, of your kingdom and love.

John 16:33 NLT

'I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.'

“Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace” – so runs the opening line of my morning office prayer. I love it’s sentiment, since God has granted me this gift when I choose to take hold of it. There is no real peace outside of God. However, the word easily rolls off my lips while I retain my inner angst.

In my life I have tried to use all my skills to avoid the world’s troubles. It wasn’t until I travelled after university, both in this country and abroad, that I witnessed what might truly be troubles. My life had been kindly shielded through the love and actions of my parents. As a teenager I had to create my own angst through self-indulgent reflection and acts of minor rebellion.

As an adult I began to experience the reality that the quality of my life was not entirely within my gift. There were actions I could take that were sensible, but when chronic illness hit Katey,  I had to pause and take on the carer role. In reality this was perceived by many as an appropriate response. Yet, the consequences were far-reaching, removing me from my career pathway and I little realised, as I dealt with the pain I felt, that there were long-term consequences to my action.

Once in the wilderness and thrown back upon our own resourcefulness, we cannot survive without taking hold of God. Unless I can discover God’s presence in what are to me unbearable circumstances, I shall be consumed by the wilderness itself.

Somewhere within my “trials and sorrows” I need to locate God as an anchor point that will hold me through them. Only then might I let go of anxiety and make my peace with God, myself and my circumstances.

QUESTION: What does it take to live in the peace of God?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, your victory over sin and death gives me hope; your Spirit’s presence gives me peace. Thank you.

Matthew 4:2 NLT

'For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.'

Change takes time. In a culture increasingly insistent on instant response, the change process is all but lost. The idea that building a habit is an overnight miracle is a myth. It demands my deliberate engagement and a long process to ensure change is lasting and not merely superficial. Research suggests that some habits, such as drinking a bottle of water with lunch, may be achieved quite simply within 18 days, while more complex habits will take around two months. So while Jesus was not changing a habit, he was establishing how he would live his life in ministry.

Forty was a number that would have resonated with his Jewish audience. Forty was the number associated with transition and a new beginning. It’s why the Jewish punishment for offenders was 40 lashes less one, the aim to bring someone to the point of transition and a fresh start. This wilderness experience was a period of transition for Jesus. Having entered the wilderness [itals]filled[end itals] with the Holy Spirit through his baptism, Jesus returned 40 days later in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lent offers us a space where we can look to make a fresh start. It is why the Church historically welcomed new converts into its ranks at Easter – they made a new start through baptism and receiving the Eucharist for the first time. A fresh start is not simply because I messed up in some way. It’s also looking to start a new chapter in my walk of faith.

The battles I wrestle in the wilderness are often more about the potential threat to my comfort zone any transition might require. Most of us dislike change, so we seek to replicate what we know and trust, simply because of its familiarity. Faith is ever moving, expanding, challenging, illuminating. The question I ask myself each Lent is, “Am I growing in my faith?” The answer I seek from God.

QUESTION: Are you growing in your faith?

PRAYER: Lord, lead me to a place where I become hungry to know you better.

Matthew 4:1 NLT

'Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.'

We can all probably identify wilderness experiences from our lives. These are uncomfortable places to dwell for any length of time. The wilderness, or desert as it’s sometimes referred to, lacks the capacity to sustain life. So by virtue of my travelling through the wilderness, I must look elsewhere for my well-being. I’ve experienced the barren reality of wilderness through childlessness as well as in the care and loss my first wife,, but it was something of a challenge to discover that God leads us into the wilderness.

Following the high point of baptism, Jesus is, “led by the Spirit” into the wilderness. So wilderness is a critical part of the journey we choose to make with God at his direction. I must make my way as best I can. It is a place of danger, temptation and confusion. My father fought the first part of the Second World War in the Sahara desert. He explained that it was a place that defied normal navigation for there were few landmarks, and shifting sand might completely change the landscape from the day before. It was easy to get lost in its sea of sand.

However, the desert also offers solitude – a space where we can find the reality of God. It might also conjure up our worst fears, where isolation terrifies us. It’s the place in which God nourishes us too, as Israel discovered on the way to the Promised Land. There are the terrors and there are blessings, although I assume not one of us wants to volunteer for the wilderness.

So Jesus is led into the wilderness to face tests that will establish his character and confirm his calling. Confronted by Satan, he must find within himself the revelation required to negotiate these critical tests. Choice is evident; this is a period of essential personal growth. We know that God creates something out of nothing. It’s when I have nothing, lost in the wilderness, that I am encouraged to discover God’s something in my own nothingness.

QUESTION: Are you willing to follow if God were to lead you through a wilderness time?

PRAYER: Lord, even in the wilderness your Spirit is with me. Help me to remember that truth.