Fast 40: Practicing the Ancient Spiritual Discipline of LentSample

Yesterday, I wrote about the power of grace in the life of Christ. And it’s important to understand that the dispenser of all grace is the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 3:16-17, Jesus was baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit, and He was ready to begin His mission and ministry on earth. But in the next chapter, it says that the Spirit led Him into the wilderness. When the Spirit leads us into a wilderness, we usually say, “Get behind me, Satan!” but the truth is that sometimes God’s will looks like a disaster.

Think of Moses. He was a prince of Egypt—favored, called, educated, anointed, appointed—and at the height of his career, he was thrown into a desert for forty years!

Your desert is your disaster. People will mock you, call you a loser, think something’s wrong with you, write you off—but it’s okay. Like Job’s friends, they can’t see the big picture. They can’t see what God sees. They don’t understand that God’s deserts are not His punishments but merely preparations for His plans.