Streams in the Desert February 3 Daily Devotional

And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness (Mark 1:12).
It seemed a strange proof of Divine favor. "Immediately."
Immediately after what? After the opened heavens and the
dove-like peace and voice of the Father's blessing, "Thou are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It is no abnormal
experience. Thou, too, hast passed through it 0 my soul. Are not the times of thy deepest depression just the moments that follow thy loftiest flight? Yesterday thou wert soaring far in the
firmament and singing in the radiance of the mom; today thy wings
are folded and thy song silent. At noon thou wert basking in the sunshine of a Father's smile; at eve thou art saying in the
wilderness, "My way is hid from the Lord."
Nay, but my soul, the very suddenness of the change is a proof that it is not revolutionary.
Hast thou weighed the comfort of that word "Immediately"? Why does it come so soon after the blessing? Just to show that it is the
sequel to the blessing. God shines on thee to make thee fit for
life's desert-places--for its Gethsemanes, for its Calvaries. He
lifts thee up that He may give thee strength to go further down; He illuminates thee that He may send thee into the night that He may make thee a help to the helpless.
Not at all times art thou worthy of the wilderness; thou art only
worthy of the wilderness after the splendors of Jordan. Nothing but the Son's vision can fit thee for the Spirit's burden; only the
glory of the baptism can support the hunger of the desert. --George Matheson.
After benediction comes battle.
The time of testing that marks and mightily enriches a soul's
spiritual career is no ordinary one, but a period when all hell
seems let loose, a period when we realize our souls are brought into a net when we know that God is permitting us to be in the
devil's hand. But it is a period which always ends in certain
triumph for those who have committed the keeping of their souls to Him, a period of marvelous "nevertheless afterward" of abundant usefulness, the sixty-fold that surely follows. --Aphra White.