The wilderness is a place of spiritual growth

Thursday 10th September 2020 17:29

It seems the plan is, the schools will all reopen in September and at the best we are likely to keep the present restrictions, while if there is a second wave we may have some of our freedoms removed again. For almost all of us the pandemic means we are spending more time at home and travelling a lot less and may be this is a little like Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness before he started his ministry.

After Jesus baptism, he was “led by the Spirit into the wilderness” where he was tempted, and after 40 days he “returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit”. So it seems that 40 days of fasting made him more aware of God’s presence and gave him greater confidence that God could work through him to change the world.

I want to encourage us to spend this autumn term drawing near to God and investing some of our time into equipping ourselves to change the world and there are two opportunities for this starting in September.

You may like to read Mark Greene’s book Fruitfulness on the frontline which will be the theme behind our sermons and the basis of our home group discussions. And if you are not yet in a home group then I would strongly encourage you to join one.

The other opportunity is The Bible Course which starts on Wednesday 2 September on zoom and runs for 8 weeks. One of our friends, Angela said “I knew the events of the bible but they were like telegraph poles and The Bible Course has revealed the themes which link these telegraph poles together.” You can register by sending me an email.

Let’s use this term for spiritual formation. So that when the lockdown ends we are ready to change the world.