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Life Wasn’t Meant to be Easy
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Matthew 4:1,2 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. (NRSV)
Listen to the radio broadcast of Life Wasn’t Meant to be Easy
Download audio fileTemptation has this tendency to sneak up on you without you even being aware that it’s coming. And then, all of a sudden, boom! You fall into sin, all the time wondering, “where the blazes did that come from?!”
If that’s ever happened to you, if that keeps on happening to you, then let me tell you, you ain’t alone! It happens to all of us. Because temptation never lets up. On and on and on … your enemy the devil never, ever … ever lets up. It even happened to Jesus:
Matthew 4:1,2 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. (NRSV)
Immediately following His amazing baptism, when the Spirit descended on Him like a dove, when the heavens opened up and God spoke, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,” Jesus was led into the wilderness (thrown out actually by the Holy Spirit, we’re told in Mark’s account) to fast for forty days and forty nights … and then, at His weakest point, at a time when He was at His most vulnerable, He was tempted by the devil.
If it happened to Jesus, how do we imagine that it’s not going to happen to the likes of thee and me? Why are we so constantly surprised when temptation raises its ugly head in our lives?
There is not a day when the temptation to sin will not come your way. Sin is always acting, it’s always seducing and tempting, it’s always trying to conceive in your life and in mine. Don’t let that surprise you.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Comments
Sunil Abraham
Thank you very much, that was a timely reminder. God willing I am moving to Australia in 2 weeks on a 2 year sabbatical to work in an Aboriginal health centre in the “wilderness” in the Pilbara area. Even as I am clear in my heart that the Holy Spirit has been leading me to work there, I was reminded by God’s Word- Fresh- today- that I should expect battles and temptations. Please pray for protection and wisdom and strength and the filling of the Holy Spirit even as I respond to His bidding to bless the beautiful people there. I will be working as a general practitioner in an Aboriginal health centre