Purpose In His Plans!
"And when forty years had passed, an Angel of
the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire
in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai."
Acts 7: 30
Readers of the four Gospels, the accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry
on earth, are familiar with the time He spent alone. It was apparently
not unusual for Him to withdraw from the crowds, even from His own
disciples, to spend time alone with the Father (Luke 5:16).
The interesting thing is that this practice of
isolation was not uncommon among those
learning from and about God.
The apostle Paul is a good example. After his conversion to Christ, he
immediately withdrew into the wilderness of Arabia before returning to
Damascus (Galatians 1:17). In total, he ministered some fourteen years
in relative obscurity before being embraced by the leaders of the
Jerusalem church (Galatians 1:21–2:2).
An even longer period of obscurity was endured by Moses—
forty years as a shepherd in Midian before God called him to
go back to Egypt to lead the Hebrews out of captivity.
Sometimes God sets us apart in order
to prepare us for what is
coming next.
There is always a purpose in His plans.
"The more any man loves Christ, the more
he delights to be with Christ alone."
Thomas Brooks
