the desert a good thing?

As i promised, here is what i learned at YC in Edmonton last weekend. Mike Pilavachi was the main speaker. He was absolutely great. He is a great story teller and the youth really enjoyed him. Saturday night he talked from the book of Matthew, chapters 3 & 4. The message was about being empowered by the Spirit of God. He showed that throughout the book of Matthew, Jesus lived a life that was marked by the moving of the Spirit. So what happened prior to that?

Well, at the end of chapter 3 Jesus was baptized and the Spirit of God descended on Him. He was then led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted. 40 days he went without food and was tempted by the devil himself, and all of that was by the leading of the Holy Spirit…. Hmmm.

So often we assume that any ‘desert’ that we go through is an attack, or punishment, or something that we need to correct in our lives. But God leads us through those times to shape us and test us to see how we come out on the other side.

It’s the ‘desert’ times, and not the good times, that will ultimately define who we are. In those times we will either desperately seek God out, or we will wander aimlessly and wake up lost… hmm, I think I’ve seen that before.