Hero School

Nothing increases your strength and your character like the wilderness does. That's why the launching pad for Jesus' public ministry was 40 days in the wilderness - the training for Moses' powerful leadership of God's people was 40 years in the wilderness - and maybe why you are serving your time in the wilderness, right now. You may be asking, "What's wrong?" God's answer may very well be, "Nothing's wrong! Something's right!" He believes in you, He wants to build a warrior out of you, He wants to bless you more, use you more, make you more like His Son Jesus, but that will take the heat and the hurt and the stress of the wilderness!

All of God's great heroes are forged in the wilderness, not in the spotlight. Chuck Swindoll says, "I have never known a man or woman God has used mightily whom He has not first allowed to be hurt deeply." Now, why? Because the pain and the struggle is what strips us of our self-sufficiency, and drives us deep into His strength.

So, if you're in a wilderness time right now, you may be in God's school for heroes. It won't always be wilderness, but you will always be able to say, "I can handle it! I've been to the wilderness!"