In A Wilderness
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Sometimes people seek counseling because of disruption and upheaval in their lives. All that was familiar and stable has evaporated and they are left with confusion and dismay. They are in what can be called a wilderness experience.

Scripturally, one can be in a wilderness either because of his own rebellion (Psalm 68:6) and wickedness (Psalm 107:33-34), or because God for His sovereign purposes has led one there (Luke 4:1).

In either case, human nature reacts with panic, unbelief, fear, anger, and complaining. God, however, intends to use the wilderness to test our hearts:

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no" (Deuteronomy 8:2 KJV).

God exposes our willfulness and unbelief through testing, so that he may train us to trust Him:

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might hake thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:3 KJV).

God's purpose is to teach us to live in obedience so that we may possess the good plans and purposes He has for us:

"Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his way, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land..." (Deuteronomy 8:5-7 KJV).

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