Author: Tim Challies

This week’s blog is sponsored by Insight Counseling, providing counsel, care, and training in the grace and power of Christ.  Click here to find out more. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deut. 8:2-3) I recently planted shrubs to create a little healthy privacy between neighbors’ yards (Prov. 25:17), and I had to find some very different types of plants that would grow under the same conditions of light, water, and temperature. Only time will tell if they can grow side by side and flourish together for the desired result. These growing plants are very much like the qualities God intends to cultivate in us. He often makes surprising pairings that serve as a sign that gospel growth is present. He pairs humility and strength (Matt. 5:5), scarcity and contentment (Phil. 4:12), pain and joy (Heb. 12:2), as well as many others, to draw our hearts to the kind of growth that is uniquely Spirit-driven. Deuteronomy 8 does just the same thing as God reminds His people that the twin fruits He intends to produce from their wilderness journey are resilience and dependence. He granted them a humbling hunger that often took…See AlsoThe Unexpected Benefits of Online CounselingHelp and Hope for Couples and FamiliesBiblical Intensive Counseling