40 Days in the Desert: A Lenten Journey

Read: 1 Peter 5:6-10   1 Peter 5 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Jesus warns us that the Christian life is not a bed of roses.  In fact, He prepares us by saying, if He suffered, how much more will His followers suffer.  He knows the enemy Satan is alive and well, and looking for his next victim.  Peter describes him as a roaring lion seeking out his next prey.  So, of course, sooner or later, he’s going to come after you. But Jesus also promises us, “After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.”  If we look at our season of suffering as time spent in the desert, we must realize that the purpose of the desert is not to get through it as quickly as possible, although when we’re in the desert, that’s exactly what we’re thinking.  “Let me out of here, and fast!” When we moved to our home in Kapolei, on the Ewa Plain, we were surprised to see desert plants, cacti and succulents growing on the roadside.  W

Read: Romans 8:18-39   Romans 8 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Romans 8 reminds us that our suffering is only for a season.   The time spent in the desert will be worth it all for the glory that will be revealed. It is in these times of suffering, these desert seasons, that the Holy Spirit steps up to help us.   At times, our suffering may be so great that we don’t even know how to pray.   Ever been there?   I have.   I can remember a few specific times when I agonized over how I should pray.   I just didn’t know what God would want in that specific situation.   Maybe I knew what I wanted.   But I really wanted to pray in accordance with God’s will, and I just didn’t know what to say.   All I could do was cry. Should we ask God to take our suffering away?   Do we ask Him to help us to bear it?   Or should we be praying something else altogether? This is when the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.   And yet, because He is God, His prayers are in

Read: John 7:37-39   John 7 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Jesus invites anyone who is thirsty to come to Him.   And even more, anyone who believes in Him may come and drink, promising, “Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.” What a promise!   Even in the desert seasons of our lives, we can be an oasis, a spring of living water.   As believers, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside each one of us, comforting us, teaching us, filling us, empowering us.   We need never run dry because the Holy Spirit lives in us! Perhaps some of those desert days are meant to renew our thirst, to remind us of our utter dependence on the Holy Spirit for His life-giving water, not just to survive, but to thrive! Are you feeling dry?   Are you thirsty?   Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you anew and to refresh you with his presence.   He longs to not only live in you, but to fill you to overflowing so that His abundance in you flows out to water and refresh everyone around you.   Spend time at H

Read: Mark 1:35   Mark 1 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Throughout His ministry, we see that Jesus consistently and intentionally sought out the desolated desert places for times of prayer and communion with the Father.   Perhaps He already realized what many of us have yet to learn: that desert places hold fewer distractions. How often we want to avoid the desert places because they’re hard.   But Jesus intentionally looked for those times of solitude for uninterrupted time in spent in communion with His Father.     Do you seek out solitude?   Do you intentionally look for places free from distraction so that you can commune with the Father? Ask Him to help you create space in your journey for consistent times spent in the solitary place where few things can distract you from your purpose.   Ask God to help you go deep in your relationship with Him.   Listen:  Cody Carnes - Nothing Else (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

Read: Matthew 8:20 Matthew 8 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Think of it!  God in human flesh had no home to go to for rest and refreshment during His earthly ministry!  I can’t imagine it!  When I am tired and weary from giving out in ministry, I look forward to the quiet oasis of my comfortable home, knowing that there I can be refreshed and revived.  But Jesus wandered from town to town with no place to call His own. If He suffered such things, I should expect some level of suffering for following Him.  There is a cost to following Christ.  Am I prepared to pay the price?  Are you? Jesus said, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.  The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world.  I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.  Do you remember wheat I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you.” (John 15:16-20) Sounds pretty sc

Read: Matthew 6:33   Matthew 6 | NIV Bible | YouVersion In her devotional, “Desert Journey”, Ingrid Blixt says, “The spiritual desert will push you until you realize, ‘But God first.   God’s kingdom first.’ A singular wish, a singular mission.   The truth is, from the garden of our comfort zone, we can only see the tame blooms of self-sufficiency. but when we step into the desert, we sometimes see the wild blooms of the cactus.” In the desert, my focus is sharpened to that single mission: more of God.   God’s kingdom first.   I want—no, I NEED one thing and one thing only: God.   That unquenched thirst becomes finely tuned to the one thing I really need, which is God and God alone.   When I am moving happily along in pleasant places, there is much to distract me from what I really need.   Distractions abound on every side.   The desert is where I begin to recognize what is really important, and my desperation to get it intensifies.   All the pretty little novelties that call for

Read: Matthew 4:1-11   Matthew 4 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Lent is actually a 40-day season of the Church Calendar intended to reflect Jesus’ 40 days in the desert that we read about in today’s Scripture passage.   It was during this time of extended prayer and fasting that Jesus faced temptation from the devil. Note that Satan did not tempt Jesus at His baptism or in the Temple.   He tempted Him in the desert, when he was alone, hungry, and tired.   Satan often tries to tempt us when we are vulnerable.   He knows it’s easier to get to us when we are under stress. Satan tempted Jesus in 3 areas in which we all are commonly tempted: physical needs and desires; power and possessions; and pride.   But Jesus came through every temptation as an overcomer. Why did Jesus have to be tempted?   It was a challenge to His humanity.   Yes, Jesus was fully God, but He was also fully human.   These temptations were very real and challenged Jesus at the core of who He was.   And because He f

Read: Matthew 3:1-12   Matthew 3 | NIV Bible | YouVersion What a strange guy John the Baptist must have seemed!  Scripture describes him as wearing clothes made from coarse camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist.  He ate locusts and wild honey.  When God told the priest Zechariah that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son in their old age, they were instructed to raise him as a Nazarite—one set apart for service to God.  Some speculate that because his parents were elderly when he was born, that he was orphaned young. Luke 1:80 tells us that he lived in the desert.  Prophets used the isolation of the uninhabited wilderness to enhance their spiritual  growth and to focus their message on God.  By being in the desert, John remained separate from the economic and political influences so that he could aim his message against them.  He also remained separate from the hypocritical religious leaders of his day.  His message certainly differed from theirs! So what drew

Read: Isaiah 58:11 Isaiah 58 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Listen to all the promises God has for your desert season found in this one verse!             *He will guide you continually.             *He will satisfy your desires in scorched places.             *He will make your bones strong.             *He will make you like a well-watered garden.   A well tended garden is filled with                               blooms and burgeoning fruit!   He will make you fruitful!             *He will make you like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.   In other words, the                                 water never runs out.   He will be your constant source and supply! If that’s not enough to make you perk up and smile, I don’t know what is!   In fact, when I read it, I had to stop and have a little worship session.   The song that came to mind was “Yes and Amen” by Housefires.   The chorus says, “Faithful You are.   Faithful forever You will be.   Faithful You are.   All Yo

Read: Isaiah 35 Isaiah 35 | NIV Bible | YouVersion The first 34 chapters of Isaiah have delivered a message of judgment, gloom and doom on all nations, including Israel and Judah.   However, God is a loving and compassionate God, and here He offers a ray of hope, as He shares a beautiful picture of His coming Kingdom, in which He will establish justice and destroy all evil. Sometimes the desert feels like a place of judgment and punishment.   But we can have hope because we already know what the future holds—God reigning on the throne in righteousness and justice. What a beautiful picture He paints as He describes a kingdom where even the desert will be green and covered in lush blooms!   A place of joy and gladness.   A place of singing! And right through the middle of that once-barren wilderness will run a great road, the Highway of Holiness.   On this highway, the righteous pilgrims will journey from the desert of suffering to Jerusalem.   Only those who follow God will fi

Read:  Isaiah 32 Isaiah 32 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Israel had suffered for so long.  They were desperate for a righteous king to come and restore their land, ruling with justice and goodness.  Into this atmosphere, God gave the prophet Isaiah a message of hope, a message that foretold their coming King, the Messiah. Jesus would not be born for several hundred more years, but God reminded His people of their promised Messiah, and the hope that God would fulfill His promise to send them a Savior, a Rescuer who would rule and reign in righteousness. We are on the other side of Jesus’ coming to earth.  Most of the people of Israel who were living when Jesus walked the earth failed to recognize Him as their promised Messiah.  We have the advantage of looking back and seeing how He fulfilled all the prophecies about the Messiah.  We see the whole story, the big picture. Yet, life is still sometimes hard.  We still walk in dry and lonely desert places.  But we, like Israel, have a

Read: Song of Songs 2:10; Hosea 2:14 Song of Songs 2 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Hosea 2 | NIV Bible | YouVersion There is a desert of testing, such as Jesus faced, when He went into the wilderness for 40 days and was tempted.   But there is also a desert of communion.   John the Baptist was made into the man he was from his time in the desert, spent alone in communion with God. God may call us to come away with Him into the desert of communion.   There we can find strength, a place to commune with God free from distraction.   No friends, no things to get in between you and God.   Nothing that takes up too much room in your heart.   The desert has a way of narrowing our desires to a single laser focus—more of God.   We recognize our utter helplessness without Him.   We cannot survive without Him. God loves you so much.   He longs to restore the intimacy with you that He originally intended at creation.   Do you hear His siren call, wooing you to come away with Him, to bask in His

Read: Psalm 102 Psalms 102 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Has your desert journey lasted far longer than ever imagined possible?   Does it seem like there’s no end in sight?   Do you feel like a little desert owl, lost and alone in the middle of a barren wilderness? One thing I have found as I’ve read the Psalms is that the writer had no fear of expressing his feelings to God, whether he was happy and praising God, or angry at injustice and unfairness, or sad, or fearful, or desperate. God already knows how you feel, so you don’t have to put on a happy face for Him.   There’s no need for pretense, no need to put on a mask and try to make yourself seem super-spiritual.   He knows your pain.   He sees your despair.   He hears the deepest cries of your heart, the ones poured out silently into your pillow in the darkest night.   He can handle your feelings.   He’s not threatened by your anger. And He cares.   You may ask, “But if God really cares, why does He allow….?”   There’s no eas

Read: Psalm 78   Psalms 78 | NIV Bible | YouVersion Psalm 78 is a history lesson, a review of all God did for His people throughout history.   Much of Israel’s history was passed down through the generations as parents told their children the stories of what God had done for their people in years past. Sometimes we need a reminder of all that God has done for us.   We need to remember when He parted the waters of the Red Sea so that His people could walk through on dry ground, and then how He pushed those same waters back together again, drowning the enemy’s army so that they could never pursue them again.   God brought water from a rock, and provided them with meat and bread.   And on and on and on. But sometimes we need other reminders too.   We need reminders of the failures of the past, the rebellion, the grumbling, the complaining, the idolatry.   We need those reminders so that we can learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them. As we read over Psalm 78, we