When I was a young believer, I thought "mountaintop" experiences were where I would meet Jesus. However those highs rarely lasted or led to growth.

It's in the hard places of sorrow, loss, and pain that God helps us to grow in our faith and become closer to Him. As I learned,, "The desert is not an oversight in God's plan but an integral part of our growth process."

God led many Old Testament patriarchs to the desert. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had wilderness experiences. It was in the desert that God prepared Moses' heart and called him to lead His people out of slavery (Exodus 3:1-3). And it was in the desert that God "watched overt the Israelite's' journey" for forty years with His help and guidance  (Deuteronomy 2:7).

110054921
Getty Images/fStop
loading...

God was with Moses and the Israelite's each step of their journey through the desert, and He's with you and me in ours. In the desert, we learn to rely on God. There He meets us, and there we grow.