Who Ministers to You in Your Wilderness?

Mark 1:12-13: Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

What immediately jumped out at me was that the angels ministered to Jesus. This verse did not initially lead me to believe that it was after Satan left Jesus, but upon rereading Matthew 4:1-11, I noticed that in verse 11, it states, “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” There was a big ‘oh’ moment from me. Nevertheless, I think my question still stands: Who ministers to you in your wilderness?

Quick recap of the story based on the account in Matthew 4: 

Jesus went away into the wilderness, led by the Spirit. In Matthew, it says He was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. Here in Mark, it simply says, the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. While Jesus was in the wilderness, away from the noise of everyone seeking Him for healing, away from teaching in synagogues, the devil took this opportunity to try him. 

I don’t know if anyone has ever watched an animal on the hunt, but I’ve seen my cat lie in wait, as still as possible, while watching innocent rabbits enjoy themselves. He waits for the lone rabbit to pounce, and I can only imagine that this is how Satan is. He waits until we are alone, as he did with Jesus.

From the full account in Matthew, we see the instances where Satan really tries. He told Jesus to turn stones to bread, told Jesus to throw Himself down and started to quote scripture to Him, “For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” He then tried to offer to Jesus what didn’t belong to him in the first place, saying, “All these things I will give to you if you worship me”. Once Satan left, the angels then came in and ministered to Jesus, meeting His needs.

So that’s the backdrop to the question: Who ministers to you in your wilderness?

There’s no question that it’s easier to be led astray when we feel we are at our lowest. When we feel there is no one in our corner with us, and from every angle, we are being attacked. These are moments Satan comes in and tries to take residence in order to take God’s children from Him.

Satan is the narcissistic partner who loves it when we are isolated from our church family, because he feels that we don’t even know God anymore. He comes in, tries to sweet-talk us, and if our armour drops, he will attempt to use that as a doorway to entice us to fall back into sin, which makes it crucial for us to ensure that we stay in the Word and seek God continuously. 

At the beginning of 2024, I did a 40-day Instagram (IG) detox. One reason was that I found that every morning, after reading scripture, I would end up on Instagram trying to find snippets of sermons in the format of reels. The other reason is that I read Matthew 4 on January 4th, and then went to Brixton church on the Sabbath, where the 40 days and 40 nights were mentioned again. I believe there was a third instance where it was mentioned again, so, true to Careen fashion, I took that as my sign, and I signed out of IG, I believe, on Tuesday. 

During that time, I spent a lot of my time reading my Bible, even more than before, I was led to (Iron Sharpens Iron) ISI and started joining devotions in the mornings from the 11^th. I became more conscious of what I was feeding myself spiritually, to ensure that I didn’t lose sight.

At that time, I wasn’t truly thinking about who was ministering to me, where I was getting my counsel from, but I did try my best to ensure that I was reading my Bible more, praying more and just really trying to draw near to God.

Having read Mark 1 yesterday morning and arrived at verse 13, where it states that the angels ministered to Jesus, I can genuinely say that if I were to go back to another 40 days without IG, I would be very mindful of the conversations I had with individuals during that period.

Everyone’s wilderness is completely different, but, from Jesus’ example, we need to ensure we are fully armoured. It’s essential to recognise that not everyone who comes to you with scripture, while you are in your wilderness, deserves our time and energy. If we can’t, in that moment, find the scriptures to support us as we say goodbye to them, we turn to God and pray.