40 Days in the Desert

"This is my prayer in the desert, when all that's within me feels dry; this is my prayer in my hunger and need, my God is a God who provides"- Hillsong

Recently I have been thinking a lot about Jesus' 40 days spent in the desert being tempted by the devil and how we are called to imitate these 40 days during Lent. Now I know that it is not anywhere near Lent, but I believe that we are called to purify ourselves in this way throughout the year as well. An appropriate period of 40 days presented itself to me (long story) and I decided to take that time and detach emotionally from the things in my life that were hindering my relationship with the Lord. Fortunately, I have become very skilled in the art of emotional chastity having done an emotional dating fast last year. And by skilled I mean that I can recognize the areas where I have been failing and try to work on them... not that I'm good at being emotionally chaste. I still have a lot of room to grow! But the Lord has blessed me with the ability to be very self-aware and I know when I'm messing up. If you haven't gathered by now, women usually have the most difficulty in this area when men are involved. It has been very difficult for me to be still single while many of my close friends are getting married if not already hitched, and I'm sure many women out there experience this same thing. Its rough. But there is a beauty in it that I think many of us fail to realize. And it took me these 40 days to really realize it and see the beauty that there is in the suffering. This is time for you and the Lord. Allow Him to pursue you! Something that I did which was extremely helpful and beautiful, was to ask the Lord to pursue me. Actually, I told Him that I needed Him to,and I needed to be able to see and recognize His love for me on a daily basis. And let me tell you, as soon as I started asking Him this, He was more than happy to shower me with love, because that is what He is waiting to do for each and every one of us.

My "desert time" as I like to call it wasn't anything extravagant, I didn't isolate myself from society and withdraw for 40 days, I simply took the time to refocus myself and really look up at the Lord and wait upon Him, because everything happens in His timing. And you don't have to be single to do this. The Lord should always be your first, number one love. If you let Him, He will give you the most thrilling plan in existence, better than anything you could have ever dreamed of.

"But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" - Micah 7:7