The true Christian finds this world to be a wilderness. There is no
change in the world itself. The change is in the man's heart.
The wilderness wanderer thinks it altered; a different world from what he has hitherto known his friends, his own family, the employment in which he is daily engaged, the general pursuits of men, the cares and anxieties, the hopes and prospects, the amusements and pleasures, and what I may call 'the general din and whirl of life', all seem to him different to what they were; and for a time perhaps he can scarcely tell whether the change is in them, or in himself.
This however is the prominent and uppermost feeling in his mind: that he finds himself, to his surprise a wanderer in a world which has changed altogether its appearance to him. The fair, beautiful world, in which was all his happiness and all his home; has become to him a dreary wilderness.
Sin has been fastened in its conviction on his conscience. The Holy Spirit has taken the veil of unbelief and ignorance off his heart. He now sees the world in a wholly different light; and instead of a paradise it has become a wilderness; for sin, dreadful sin, has marred all its beauty and happiness.
It is not because the world itself has changed that the Christian feels it to be a wilderness; but because he himself has changed.
The wilderness wanderer thinks it altered; a different world from what he has hitherto known his friends, his own family, the employment in which he is daily engaged, the general pursuits of men, the cares and anxieties, the hopes and prospects, the amusements and pleasures, and what I may call 'the general din and whirl of life', all seem to him different to what they were; and for a time perhaps he can scarcely tell whether the change is in them, or in himself.
This however is the prominent and uppermost feeling in his mind: that he finds himself, to his surprise a wanderer in a world which has changed altogether its appearance to him. The fair, beautiful world, in which was all his happiness and all his home; has become to him a dreary wilderness.
Sin has been fastened in its conviction on his conscience. The Holy Spirit has taken the veil of unbelief and ignorance off his heart. He now sees the world in a wholly different light; and instead of a paradise it has become a wilderness; for sin, dreadful sin, has marred all its beauty and happiness.
It is not because the world itself has changed that the Christian feels it to be a wilderness; but because he himself has changed.
[Joseph Philpot]
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Psalm 107:4 ... They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Colossians 3:2 ... Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Matthew 6:20-21 ... But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.❤
