God never abandoned the Israelites when they were in the wilderness; He was a cloud by day, a pillar of fire at night, and dwelt amongst them in His tabernacle. The wilderness experience is never meant to separate you from His presence. You might be going through a dry season, you might FEEL like God is far away, you might think He is silent but the truth is – He is NEVER distant from those who call upon His name.
When you accept the fact that sometimes seasons are dry and times are hard and that God is in control of both, you will discover a sense of divine refuge, because the hope then is in God and not in yourself.
Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart has turned to stone.
Let the soul thank God when she experiences his loving endearments, but let her not repine when she finds herself left in desolation. It is important to lay great stress on this point, because some souls, beginners in the spiritual life, finding themselves in spiritual aridity, think God has abandoned them, or that the spiritual life is not for them; thus they give up the practice of prayer and lose what they have previously gained. The time of aridity is the best time to practice resignation to God’s holy will.