Wilderness: The Place of Meeting God

contributed by Berry Hudson

Wilderness: The Place of Meeting God

It can be hard to have an important conversation in our world. Maybe you live in a noisy house full of kids. Maybe your college dorm is always buzzing with activity. Maybe you live in an apartment where every sound seems to travel through the walls. And if the people around you aren't distracting you, your phone probably is. We carry a small source of noise with us everywhere we go. The moment there is an empty space in the day, we can fill it with scrolling, messages, podcasts, news, or entertainment.

We are surrounded by voices.

So, it can be surprisingly difficult to be quiet long enough to listen—to another person, to ourselves, and especially to God.

I know parents who sit in their cars in the driveway or garage simply to have a few uninterrupted minutes. Some people go to a coffee shop less for the coffee than for the opportunity to sit somewhere away from the demands of home and have an undistracted conversation.

Undivided attention is difficult to give and difficult to receive.

And this isn't only a modern problem. Scripture describes God's people facing something similar thousands of years ago. Again and again, God met His people in the wilderness. Perhaps the wilderness offers us something we don't naturally seek: a place where the other voices become quieter and we have an opportunity to pay attention to God.

The Wilderness and the Call to Listen

One of the primary Hebrew words used in the Old Testament for wilderness or desert is midbar. Some scholars have noted a possible connection between midbar and the Hebrew root associated with speaking. We should be cautious about building too much theology on a word connection. But the picture Scripture gives us is compelling: the wilderness is repeatedly a place where God speaks and where His people must learn to listen.

Think about what happens when you leave the noise behind.

You might experience it on a hike through the woods, sitting in a boat on a quiet lake, or walking a trail where there is surprisingly little human activity. At first, the quiet can feel strange. Then you begin to notice things you hadn't noticed before—the wind, birds, your own footsteps, your breathing.

The absence of noise changes what you can hear.

Something similar can happen spiritually.When life becomes quieter, we may become more aware of what has been filling our minds and hearts all along. We may notice fears we have been avoiding, desires we have been feeding, disappointments we have been carrying, and questions we have been too busy to ask. And in that quieter place, we can turn our attention toward God.

The wilderness doesn't magically make us better listeners. But it can expose how much we have depended on other voices to tell us who we are, what we need, and where we should go.

Jesus Went to Solitary Places

Jesus understood the importance of solitude.

The Gospels tell us that He repeatedly withdrew to solitary places to pray:

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”—Mark 1:35

Luke tells us that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16).

Notice that Jesus didn't withdraw because people didn't matter. In fact, His withdrawal happened in the middle of profound ministry to people. He withdrew because His relationship with His Father mattered.

Jesus knew where His life and ministry received their direction. He did not live primarily by the demands of the crowd, the urgency of the moment, or the expectations of other people. He continually turned toward His Father. That is significant for us.

We can easily imagine that hearing from God requires a dramatic spiritual experience. But Jesus' pattern points us toward something much more ordinary: making space to turn our attention toward God.

And sometimes that happens in lonely places.

The Wilderness Is Also a Place of Need

Mark 6 gives us another picture of Jesus and the wilderness.

Jesus and His disciples attempted to withdraw to a solitary place. But the crowds followed them. When Jesus saw the people, Mark tells us that He had compassion on them because they were “like sheep without a shepherd.” Then Jesus taught them. The wilderness was not a place where human need disappeared. In fact, the needs of the people became particularly visible there. That is worth remembering.

We might imagine that if we could just get away from our circumstances, we would finally be able to hear God. But Scripture doesn't promise that solitude will remove our problems. Sometimes the wilderness makes our need more obvious.

We discover that we are not as self-sufficient as we thought. 

We discover how deeply we want control. 

We discover how much we depend on the approval of others. 

We discover that we cannot fix ourselves.

And that can become a place where we encounter the compassion of Christ. Jesus looked at people who were confused, needy, and without direction, and He had compassion on them. That is the kind of Savior we meet in the wilderness.

What If You Are in a Wilderness Season?

Perhaps you are there now.Your wilderness may be a difficult marriage, an uncertain future, a painful loss, a season of loneliness, a disappointment you didn't expect, or simply a prolonged period when you don't understand what God is doing.  When we are suffering, it is natural to want out.

The Israelites certainly wanted out of the wilderness. At times they looked back toward Egypt and remembered the food they had eaten there (Numbers 11:5). Their memory of Egypt became strangely comforting when the present felt difficult. 

We can do something similar. When life becomes uncomfortable, we may reach backward for what is familiar—even when what was familiar wasn't good for us.

We may return to an old relationship.

We may return to an old coping strategy. 

We may bury ourselves in work, entertainment, food, achievement, social media, or constant activity.

Anything can become an attempt to escape the discomfort of where we are. But Scripture invites us to consider another possibility.

What if, instead of asking only, “How do I get out of this wilderness?” we also asked, “How might I meet God here?”

That question doesn't mean that every painful circumstance is something God wants us to remain in. Sometimes faithfulness means seeking help, setting boundaries, leaving an unsafe situation, pursuing treatment, changing jobs, or making a difficult decision. Nor does it mean that suffering is good simply because God can use it. It means that wherever we find ourselves, God is not absent. The wilderness is not outside His reach.

Learning to Listen

If you are having difficulty hearing God, consider what voices are competing for your attention.

What are you continually listening to? What stories are shaping how you understand yourself?

What do you tell yourself about your circumstances? Whose approval feels necessary for you to be okay? What do you reach for whenever there is a moment of silence?

These questions aren't meant to produce guilt. They can simply help us notice what has captured our attention. Sometimes we need a literal solitary place. That might be a walk without your phone. A few hours on a quiet trail. A morning with your Bible and a cup of coffee. A day away from social media.

You might even need what we could call a “phone wilderness”—a deliberate period without the constant stream of voices coming through your screen.

But the goal isn't merely to become better at being quiet. The goal is to become more attentive to God.

And that means bringing your actual life into that quiet place.

Bring your fear.

Bring your disappointment.

Bring your anger.

Bring your questions.

Bring your desire to escape.

Bring the things you wish were different.

The God who meets us in Scripture is not put off by the truth about us. We don't have to clean ourselves up before we come to Him.

God Meets Us in the Wilderness

The wilderness can be a lonely place. It can also be a place where we discover that we are not alone.

God met Israel in the wilderness. Jesus withdrew to solitary places to be with His Father. Crowds followed Jesus into lonely places and encountered His compassion and teaching. So, if you find yourself in a wilderness season, you don't have to pretend that you enjoy it. You don't have to call your suffering good. And you don't have to manufacture some profound spiritual lesson from your pain.

But you can turn toward God.

You can listen.

You can bring your questions to Him.

You can allow His Word to speak into the places where other voices have become loud.

And you can remember that the wilderness is not a place where God has abandoned you.

It can become a place of meeting. Not because the wilderness itself is sacred, but because God is there.

And the God who meets us there is not merely looking for something from us. In Christ, He comes toward us with compassion. So perhaps the question for this season isn't only, “How can I get out of the wilderness?”

Perhaps it is also: “Lord, where are You meeting me here?”