The Invitation of the Wilderness
• Everyone wants to be an overcomer, but no one wants to
• The biggest thing we have to overcome is
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. —Matthew 16:24 (NIV)
• Overcoming the enemy is more about
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. —James 4:7 (NIV)
• In the wilderness we are challenged by our unmet
… At a foundational level, God always provides what is truly needed to live a life of dependence … How often do our ideas of provision have more to do with living in such a way that we are independent and self-sufficient as opposed to vulnerable or dependent upon God? —Ted Wueste, Trusting God in the Wilderness
• God always provides what is truly needed to live a life of
• The truth is God likes us when we’re
• God says, “My power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
• The wilderness puts us in touch with our weakness,
• There is always something God is
7Therefore in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. —2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
• It caused him real
• It was a
• He didn’t get the answer he was
• God’s answer was an invitation to
• “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9).
• Our weakness and brokenness is the perfect
• His
• His