I just started reading a book by Dr. David Jeremiah, entitled "When Your World Falls Apart: Seeing Past the Pain of the Present." Like...

Friends, we usually think of the desert as a place of pain. As a kind of punishment. A lonely place. But... that's not what the Desert is for. It's for intimacy. Hosea 2:14-15 (NIV) reads: "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor [trouble] a door of Hope." Has God led you into the desert? Embrace it. It's a privilege, not a punishment...