You can never be sure how God might use a person. Edward Kimball was a Sunday School teacher in Chicago, Illinois. It was his kindness and patience toward a hopeless boy which God used to train D. L. Moody. It is a story similar to the Samaritan woman who was one of the worst sinners God used to bring revival to her entire city (John 4:39).
God doesn’t just use the evangelist. Do you want to be used as a husband, father, worker, or mother? God uses people everywhere. His usage is based on your character, your ethics and your morality. We are called to be the salt of the earth, salt that is not salty is useless (Matthew 5:13).
John the Baptist lived in the desert.
The Christian life is sometimes called going through wilderness. For John the Baptist it was an actual wilderness. The wilderness is harsh and tough environment. It’s a biblical pattern that those God uses those who have traveled through a wilderness. Moses, Isaiah, Jesus and Paul were all raised in a wilderness. The wilderness is God’s school where He reforms and molds a person (John 15:2).
Alone with God
John the Baptist was alone with God, spending time alone with God in the wilderness, away from the cities and the crowds. During this time he was in solitude and restraint before beginning his ministry. In contrast, modern society has a great dread of being alone. We have TV and phones which are always connected. Being alone with God is very important.
Just being alone with God is not biblical solitude. We are constantly thinking about other things, planning our day or letting our thoughts wander. Solitude with God is centered around God’s word. Moses was outside the camp with God learning from God face to face. Jesus sought solitude with God to pray. Isaiah was alone in the temple when God showed him a vision. Believers should priorities solitude with God as it has many benefits. We can gain focus and a right perspective on our other priorities. There is also a danger if we neglect solitude. The worries of life and the deceit of the world can choke your fruit (Mark 4:19). Solitude provides the place to digest the Word with God and internalize God’s truth. The solitude is your wilderness, seek it and prioritize time with the Lord.
Solitude with God’s word
Your time alone with God must be meditation on God’s word. (Psalm 1:2) Meditation is a wrestling and brooding over the Word of God. Thomas White said “Mediation is a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.” Meditation is not a creating your own reality in your head. True reality is in the word of God. Meditation in the Bible deepens our knowing God and understanding God’s mind and will.
Psalm 119 is all about meditation in God’s word. King David’s life was full of turmoil yet He was faithful because his faith was built through meditation. Isaac overcame the loss of his mother through meditation (Gen 24:64) Meditation is so important to the Christian life. Thinking deeply about God, your sin, the Bible. Use the Bible to constantly think over your life and God.
Solitude and prayer
When you meditate on the Scripture, it naturally leads to prayer. John the Baptist was also a man of prayer (Luke 11:1). Prayer is not just important, it is more important than we realize. Without praying we are spiritually dead. Remember the Genesis account, where Adam and Eve lost closeness with God and were deceived by Satan. In words of JC Ryle, “Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.”
Tragically, many Christians don’t pray, because they are satisfied with physical blessings over spiritual blessings. That is until they hit a wall, then they pray. Another reason we lack prayer is because we might be disappointed in the lack of answers. Jeremiah had 46 hard years of ministry with no conversions, yet he never gave up praying (Lam 3:19-26). If we knew God and what loves most, we would commune with Him in prayer. His desire is for our abiding in Him, being sanctified by the Word and prayer (1 Tim 4:5). When we pray without meditation, we create our own God with little knowledge of who God truly is. That god we create cannot answer prayers. Then we curse God because our wrong prayers go unanswered. Remember it was by prayer that church was started in a small upper room (Acts 2:42) and in prayer it will continue.
Conclusion
We are the creature before the Creator. We need prayer. We don’t pray because we think we are able, but we are not. When we begin to pray, we begin to realize we are not able. John the Baptist loved God more than anyone else. He depended on God and spent time alone with Him in the wilderness. The solitude with God builds obedience which is our proper worship.
BIBLE COMMUNITY CHURCH 
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