I don't know about you, but in my life I hope for the godly desires of my heart to become reality. Notice I said "godly" desires. We can all agree that some of the desires that come out of our hearts can leave us and others all messed up. When I read Psalm 37:4: "Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart," I take that as a promise from our Creator! It's like He's saying that no matter who you think you are, where you are, and what you have done, if you were to follow Him and truly delight in obeying and trusting in Him, the good things that you and I want He will truly provide. The question we might ask is, "Well, I honestly feel like I delight in you Lord and strive to follow you, so when are you going to give me the desires of my heart?" The sooner the better! Well, to be honest here, I've had these thoughts run through my mind a time or 100. It wasn't until earlier this week I stumbled on something on the Instagrid that gave me a lot to think about.

As I was scrolling through my Instagrid feed, I came across a post from a guy that started to get the wheels turning in my head. He posted a picture that said: "We always want the promise, but don’t want to go through the wilderness to get to the promise!"

That's when I said to myself, "That is so true!" We have to realize that sometimes to follow God we must be willing to walk through a wilderness. God's desire is for all of us to be blessed and to have the good things we so fervently desire, but unless we are ready for it, ready to appreciate it, ready to take care of it, ready to use it in a holy and God-glorifying manner, we might have to stay journeying through the wilderness until we are. What some estimate what should have been an 11-day journey for ancient Israel turned into 40 years, simply because they were not ready! God then used the time in the wilderness to break down high places and to turn their hearts from themselves and their evil ways on to Him. That same process needs to be done in our spiritual lives before we can receive the promise, before we can receive the desires of our hearts.

We have to realize that sometimes to follow God we must be willing to walk through a wilderness.

As we summit the mountain and look out upon the entire beauty of the wilderness, we might then begin to see the journey from God’s point of view and not our own!

I wonder, like how we see the beauty of the wilderness areas throughout the world, if that's not how God sees the wilderness we might be in? We might look at the journey through our spiritual wilderness as traveling through desolate wastelands, like Frodo and Sam going through the land of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings, but if we were to start looking at it the way God might look at it, we might see that we might actually be going through a beautiful wilderness! As seeds of pretty wildflowers are planted, start to grow, and bloom, so we might start seeing our spiritual growth through the wilderness. As we go through the wilderness and start to get thirsty, we might stop at small stream to be filled with the Spirit and Word of God. As we look around we see mighty trees with roots that go deep, hopefully starting to notice the strong relationships God has planted in our lives to support us along our journey through the wilderness. Carrying on down the trail we could stop at a still and peaceful lake at sunrise and look into it and see the reflection of our Lord and Savior being formed in us as the light of our King shines down on us.

As we summit the mountain and look out upon the entire beauty of wilderness, we might then begin to see the journey from God's point of view and not our own! We see that all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28). We start seeing and embracing that the amazing journey through the beautiful wilderness was to prepare us for the promise and blessings He has in store for us and to give us all the good desires of our heart! If we could only realize the plans God has for us. They're plans for good and not evil, to give us a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:1). I also find it very interesting that in Matthew 4, Jesus Himself was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy, and there He fasted 40 days and 40 nights! To Jesus, this was a necessary journey before He started His ministry to the people. Think on that for a moment.

As we take each step up higher and higher into elevation the things in our spiritual journey through the wilderness begin to look smaller and smaller as our God-view begins to broaden and our perspective starts to change.

I realize that you could very well be at the beginning or in the middle of huge journey, a huge trial, and this metaphor of a beautiful wilderness might not be acceptable at this time. I pray that the God of all comfort will comfort you during this time (2 Corinthians 1:3). I'm not sure who God is speaking to right now, but I believe there are so many of us wandering in a spiritual wilderness that God has purposefully and masterfully allowed us to explore, so we can mature to the fullness and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). If you are going through a spiritual wilderness, try stop looking at it like Mordor or a dry desert land. If you can, look at it more like a beautiful hike through a pristine land with great and wonderful promises and spiritual treasures to be had during and at the end. As crazy as this may seem, enjoy the beauty of you wilderness journey!