People say, “What is the wilderness?” It is what the world, in which a man is, becomes to him as soon as he is in Christ here. He has the same house and the same business. But yesterday he was in the world; today he is in the wilderness. Yesterday, as he went about his business, he comforted himself with the thought that he could depend on the political condition of the state, that he was in a safe country, and that his business could go on without risk. The next day he has done with all this; he has now no resource but in God; he has nothing but God. He is very glad the political atmosphere is calm, but he does not depend upon it.
From Food for the Flock