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WOW, I am finally back home and boy is it nice. It was an unbelievable experience spending quality time in the desert, but it makes you realize/reflect much about life...like how lazily blessed we are to be able to flip on a light switch in the middle of the night (instead of having to cart around a lantern).

If you've not spent more than 2 consecutive days away from phone, TV, and newspapers, in a peaceful and quite place, let me strongly suggest it. It will revolutionize your prayer life. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert praying and fasting before he began his ministry. (I confess, fasting was more than I could do this first trip.) Scripture seems to suggest that the wilderness was like a refiner's fire, in that it was transformative. Jesus' dependence on the Father above increased to the point of being sent out to save the world. However, during the desert time Jesus was also greatly tempted. Don't you find a spiritual truth in there? The closer you get to God, the more the Tempter comes at you. For example, the more I pray and meditate on God's presence, the more excuses I find for not helping others. Or, if I increasingly extend the grace and mercy of God to others through some type of service the more likely I am to be hit with the lie that I don't need to read God's communications regularly. Becoming spiritual mature positively correlates with becoming a prime target for the Enemy's advances. When you get serious about God-time, when you get serious about experiencing Him, growing in Him, your "spiritual bulls-eye" gets thrown at more often and with greater force.

I mention this because serious temptation was one of the things I experienced in the desert. As the ceaseless noise of life stilled and the trivial thoughts in my mind stopped scampering this way and that , and - as Kierkegaard says, I "willed to will one thing," that is, the overflowing presence of a gracefilled God - I found that Satan immediately lunged at me and he did it with a subtlety he never had before. The grand thing about alone time with God is that in those quite times He forms you in ways great and small. This time, I was able to discern with a bit more confidence what my enemy was attempting. And - God be praised - at least in this instance the enemy didn't gain any more ground. I so love 1 Peter 5:8 - Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.
Still your soul, Grow in God, but watch out.
~ Jeff