Grace In The Wilderness

In Jeremiah 31:2, it talks about those who "found grace in the wilderness." When Moses led the children of Israel into the wilderness, they found much sorrow and pain and affliction, but they also found grace. They found hunger, but they also found Manna from Heaven. They found thirst, but they also found water bursting forth from the rock. They found poisonous serpents, but they also found miraculous healing. They found the golden calf, but they also found the Stone Tablets. They found enemies, but they also found victory. None of us like to find ourselves in the desert of affliction, but if we enter into the pain with humility and faith and trust in the Lord that He will not lead us into sorrow and heartbreak needlessly, then we will also find grace. The Lord will consecrate our suffering for our good so long as we turn to Him, and there is strength and wisdom and power and mercy and grace that we can find in the wilderness and nowhere else.