“Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life “(Mark 6:4).

I was blessed to have had parents who faithfully made church attendance a regular part of our lives. As such, I attended many worship services and was witness to many baptisms, which in the case of our church were immersions. I remember thinking how important Timothy’s mother Eunice was, because our preacher always mentioned her during baptisms. Each time he would raise someone out of the water, he would proclaim, “Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in ‘Eunice’ of life!”

I was relieved to finally solve the mystery of “Eunice,” to learn that the correct word was “newness.” I am continually awed to know that God can transform us, to make us new creatures. Only God is the Creator. Only God can make us new through the saving work of his son, Jesus, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This verse is especially fitting for this week following Easter when we just celebrated the Resurrection. It is because of Christ’s work on the cross that we can be cleansed of our sin. The cross symbolizes death to sin, and death to death, so that we are free to live our Redeemed Lives in Christ forever.

This Lenten season we have been focusing on the heart, which we define biblically as “the ‘basket’ term for our mind, our will, our emotions, and our conscience.” We are describing the pathway by which our hearts respond and therefore change from rebellious to renewed.

The first step on the pathway is recognition, which means that we see our sin the way God sees our sin. Only God’s viewpoint is total objective as He is the standard of true righteousness.

The second step on the pathway is responsibility, a broken and contrite heart.

The third step on the pathway is regeneration, the act of the Holy Spirit transforming our hearts.

The fourth step on the pathway is repentance, turning away from sin and (re)turning to God.

The fifth and final step on the pathway is renewal.

Renewal is the objective, our destination. All the other steps are the means to achieve the objective. The goal of a responsive heart is restored relationship, renewed to something even better than before.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost their intimate relationship with God. They were banished from the Garden of Eden, and their relationship was broken.

God sent his Son, Jesus, to reconcile us back to him. Not by obeying the law, because none of us is righteous enough to be perfectly obedient. It is only through the perfect righteousness of Jesus, who paid the ultimate price of death on the cross, that we can be restored to our former relationship with God.

How can we be sure that God wants this restored relationship? He tells us in Ezekiel 36:22 that it is ultimately for His sake: “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.”

How can we know we are reconciled to God? When we hate our sin; when we hate what God hates and love what God loves. If we have a new heart, we have a new life. David has the nerve to ask for joy in Psalm 51. Where does that joy come from? From a renewed heart with God. “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Paul speaks to us about our renewed hearts:

• “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
• “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17).
• “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2).
• “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The point of all these five weeks of devotions about our responsive hearts is to melt our hearts with the love of God for us. My prayer for you is that you will recognize and own your sin, that you will submit to God’s call on your heart and repent, turning to God. The first time you take these steps you are on the pathway. Daily, walk, confess, repenting, stay in God’s Word, and pray. In this way you are renewed and will continue to renew and strengthen your relationship with God, his son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In this way you will walk with Jesus both now and forevermore.

In Christ,

Judy

“Abba, Father, he cried out, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Mark 14:36).

Have you ever been desperate for something? Are you desperate right now? Perhaps it is for healing for yourself or for a loved one. Perhaps it is for someone you know to receive Christ. Perhaps it is for reconciliation with a loved one, or a new home, or freedom from addiction. I imagine that many of you are desperate for something. I know I am.

We are in the middle of Holy Week. You probably know what this means. Holy Week replaces Passover Week in the Christian calendar. Passover represents a desperate time in Jewish history. The Israelites desperately wanted their freedom from the Egyptians, and God delivered them by sending the angel of death to the firstborn of every home, but the angel of death would pass over all the homes that had the blood of a lamb smeared over the door. (Exodus 11-12)

Jesus was in Jerusalem that week to celebrate the first Passover, and to become the sacrificial lamb himself. As divine, he knew his role. As man, he desperately wanted to avoid the pain and suffering he was sure to incur during his arrest, “trial,” and execution. We know this because of his desperate prayer on the cross “Abba, Father, he cried out, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  To be sure, Jesus did not want the horrific physical pain he was going through, but even more, Jesus desperately wanted to avoid the hell of having God turn His face away from him.

Jesus gave us the Lord’s prayer as a model to follow. And it is a good one for our daily prayers. On the cross, Jesus gave us another model, a prayer for when we are desperate. 

1. Abba, Father, he cried out, everything is possible for you. We acknowledge the sovereignty of God and his perfect character. God is Great. God is Good.

2. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. We pray with all our hearts for what we need.

3. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. We commit ourselves to God whatever His answer.

A biblical example of a woman with a desperate heart is found in 1 Samuel, chapter 1.  Hannah was the wife of Elkanah, and by some measure, she had everything a woman in 1050 BC could have wanted. She had a husband with some standing, he was devout, and he loved her like crazy. But Hannah had to share this man with a rival wife, Peninnah.

Peninnah, the rival wife, had a bunch of children, but Hannah had not been able to have any children. We see from this passage that Peninnah was not gracious about it. “Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her” (1 Samuel 1:6). And in that culture, fertility was a sign of God’s favor. Peninnah probably gloated that she was in God’s favor and Hannah was not. Oh, how desperate was Hannah! Hannah was barren—the Lord had closed her womb. Their annual excursion to Shiloh was a source of grief, increased pain, even cruelty, year after year. Grieving her own lack of children, Hannah had a desperate heart. And note that just because Hannah was sad did not mean that she wasn’t a woman of faith. Nothing in biblical faith makes sad things not sad.

What did Hannah do? She prayed to God. I want you to realize how significant this was in her day. She was a woman in the house of God. A woman was the property of her husband. She probably should have asked Elkanah to go to the priest to pray for her. Yet she prayed directly to God. Why? Because she was so desperate. Total despair is where the Lord’s power can manifest itself. God brings good things out of nothing–out of our need, out of our desperation.

So, Hannah was in the sanctuary. This is where she takes refuge from the harassment of her rival wife and from her pain. And how does she go? In a weeping mess. “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly” (1 Samuel 1:10). Why does she do this? Because her faith is strong! Faith is not the strength of our hearts; it is the collapse of our hearts.

We live in a culture of covering up, not collapsing. The quicker you can cover up, you show you have it going on, right? But remember the prostitute at Jesus’ feet, the blind man by the road, the paralytic man on the roof, Jesus himself at the tomb of Lazarus. There are so many songs of lament in the Psalms, songs born of grief, pain, and tears. Psalm 56:8 tells us You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Our desperation is important to God.

Hannah is confident that she matters to God. It is not that she sees her barrenness and praises God anyway. We see in 1 Samuel 1:11 that she is using the same model for prayer that Jesus used on the cross.

“And she made a vow, saying, ‘Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.’” She praises the Lord, she begs him for a son, and she commits her child to God.

1. Lord Almighty… She acknowledged the sovereignty of God and his perfect character. God is Great. God is Good.

2. …if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son…  She prayed with all her heart for what she desired.

3. …I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. She committed her son to God.

This is not the end of the story. Once she prays, she gets up and her face is no longer downcast. She does not know the answer—it is not that the prayer was answered; it is that the prayer was offered. She gave her desperation to God. Her faith is in his character and not in his answer. She knows God is able to do anything, and she knows that he will do the good thing.

We read on to find that her prayers are answered. She has a son, and when he is three years old, she follows through on her commitment to give Samuel back to the Lord. She literally took her three-year-old son to Shiloh to be raised in the temple by the priests for God’s service. This is commitment to his will. She understands that everything she has belongs to the LORD. Hannah prays a model prayer she, she makes good on her commitment to God, and she praises the giver of all good gifts. “Then Hannah prayed and said: ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord….’” (1 Samuel 2:1)

Footnote: Hannah probably never knew that her son played a key role in the Old Testament. Samuel served as a major Old Testament transition figure as the last judge and the first prophet after Moses. God used him as a kingmaker to anoint first King Saul, and then King David, who is the direct ancestor of our Savior, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just as Hannah probably did not know, we also may never know the long-term impact of our prayers, our commitments, and our obedience.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

In Christ,

Judy

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).

This Lenten season we have been focusing on the heart, which we define biblically as “the ‘basket’ term for our mind, our will, our emotions, and our conscience.” We are preparing our hearts for celebrating Easter. In the first devotional in this series, on March 2, we meditated on Psalm 103 to learn more about the heart of God. David was a man after God’s own heart, and we would strive to be the same.

We are describing the pathway by which our hearts respond and therefore change from rebellious to renewed during the remainder of these Lenten devotionals.

The first step on the pathway is recognition, which means that we see our sin the way God sees our sin. Only God’s viewpoint is total objective as He is the standard of true righteousness.

The second step on the pathway is responsibility, a broken and contrite heart.

The third step on the pathway is regeneration, a work of the Holy Spirit.

The fourth step is repentance. The definition of repentance is turning away from sin and (re)turning to God.

I never did any military drills, but I was in my high school marching band. I enjoyed marching and it was especially fun to perform an about-face. We would be marching at full speed down the football field, then when our left foot would hit the mark, we would abruptly spin around to begin marching in the opposite direction, without missing a beat. This is how I picture the act of repentance.

When Jesus began his ministry, following his baptism and forty days in the wilderness, his first words were “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  We have talked about recognizing and owning our sin. Our sin is actual treason against God, a rejection of God. David understood that he committed spiritual adultery before he committed sexual adultery. David did not lose the joy of his salvation because he sinned. He sinned because he had already lost the joy of his salvation.

When we have worldly sorrow for our sin, we run away from God. When we have Godly sorrow for our sin, we go running to him. We are the answer for worldly sorry, but God is the answer for Godly sorrow. God’s love is the cause of repentance; our repentance is never the cause of God’s love. “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4.)

Repentance is a change of mind leading to a change in action. However, our hearts will not naturally take this action. We cannot turn to God unless he has regenerated, or transformed, our hearts. We must cry out to God like David did, taking responsibility for our sin, to experience the life-giving transformation of our hearts that leads us to repentance. Repentant hearts hate sin as much as God does. Repentance does not mean that we will not sin again, but when we stay close to God through prayer and reading the Bible, our hearts stay open to the leading of the Holy Spirit so that it is truly easier to avoid sin. However, when we do sin, we are quickly convicted to recognize, confess, and repent of our sin, returning to Christ.

David, even though he was a man after God’s own heart, was not sinless. Neither are we. So, what do we do when we find ourselves in sin? We do what David did: we repent. We pray for conviction of our sin so that we can repent and change. One of the most soul-searching passages in the Bible is Psalm 51, which David wrote after Nathan confronted him with his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband.

¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

⁵ Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

As you meditate on this Psalm of David, pray for conviction and repentance, with the confidence that God will have mercy according to His unfailing love.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:1-2)

In Christ,

Judy

“Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10).

This Lenten season we have been focusing on the heart, which we define biblically as “the ‘basket’ term for our mind, our will, our emotions, and our conscience.” We are describing the pathway by which our hearts respond and therefore change from rebellious to renewed during the remainder of these Lenten devotionals.

The first step on the pathway is recognition, which means that we see our sin the way God sees our sin. Only God’s viewpoint is totally objective as He is the standard of true righteousness.

The second step on the pathway is responsibility, a broken and contrite heart.

The third step on the pathway is regeneration.

What a gift is regeneration! Our knowledge of sin and our remorseful and broken hearts move us toward God, but we are not able to progress along the path to salvation unless God changes our hearts. Only God can transform our hearts. Scriptures provide several passages about the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

• God tells Ezekiel (36:26-27): “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
• Jesus told Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘Youmust be born again.’” (John 3:5-7).
• And Paul told the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So, what are we to do? When we recognize our sin and our responsibility for our sin, then we pray like David did when he realized his responsibility for his own sin:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:1-2, 10

Regeneration of our hearts–an act of the Holy Spirit–is essential to our sanctification. And our ongoing examination of our hearts, recognizing our sin for what it is and owning it, is also essential to our sanctification. The Holy Spirit cleanses us and makes us a new creation in Christ, and our response to the work He does in us is to daily confess our sins and walk in obedience to His Word.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

In Christ,

Judy

“When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).

This Lenten season we have been focusing on the heart, which we define biblically as “the ‘basket’ term for our mind, our will, our emotions, and our conscience.” We are describing the pathway by which our hearts respond and therefore change from rebellious to renewed during the remainder of these Lenten devotionals.

The first step on the pathway is recognition, which means that we see our sin the way God sees our sin. Only God’s viewpoint is totally objective as He is the standard of true righteousness.

The second step on the pathway is responsibility.

Have you ever noticed when someone at a prominent level apologizes for something that went wrong—they say something like “Mistakes were made”? That is NOT an apology. That is not an admission of any personal responsibility.

• Remember what Adam said when God confronted him about the apple: “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree.”
• Remember what Aaron said when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai to find the Israelites worshipping a golden calf? Read Exodus 32:17-24 for a sadly amusing example of abdicating responsibility for blatant sin. And we are still dealing with the disastrous consequences.

“Maybe we say, I don’t know how that happened, it is so NOT like me!” Well guess what: it is just like you. Jesus tells us In Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”  Our reactions to our environment and circumstances reveal what is in our hearts.

Only a responsible heart will take ownership and therefore be broken because of sin. A broken and contrite spirit goes beyond confessing. Confession is rooted in the knowledge of sin. Contrition is personal responsibility for sin. David had a contrite heart. He wrote in Psalm 51:17 –

“My sacrifice, O God, isa broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

In the literal sense, contrition means crushing. Have you ever had that realization of the crushing nature of your sin? Can you identify with David when he realizes the truth of Nathan’s charge against him, “You are that man!” Count the personal pronouns in Psalm 51 (I counted 36 times in 19 verses). This psalm was written by a man who took personal responsibility for his sin.

When we blame others, then nothing changes. But when we accept responsibility, we can run to God, begging for his forgiveness, and he will not withhold. This is the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of recognizing and owning our sin. Praise the Lord who is a loving and forgiving God.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

In Christ,

Judy

“When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).

This Lenten season we have been focusing on the heart, which we define biblically as “the ‘basket’ term for our mind, our will, our emotions, and our conscience.” Week One we talked about God’s heart. Last week we talked about our hearts, and how they cannot initiate any good thing but only respond to God’s love. During the remainder of these Lenten devotionals, we are going to identify the pathway by which our hearts respond and therefore change from rebellious to renewed.

The first step on the pathway is recognition.

Recognition means that we see our sin the way God sees our sin. No other viewpoint matters—not our own, not the other party’s viewpoint, not any onlooker’s viewpoint. All those are subjective viewpoints, and often uninformed. Only God’s viewpoint is totally objective and totally informed, as He is the only standard of true righteousness.

We often want to make excuses or rationalize our sin. We jokingly say, “The devil made me do it.” But seriously, when we sin, our sinful nature tries to make excuses for our actions without recognizing that it is really our sinful nature that is the culprit. When Peter got to know Jesus as the righteous God, he then recognized the extent of his own unrighteousness and proclaimed, “I am a sinful man.” The tax collector said “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Notice he did not say, I am sorry for the sinful things I have done; instead, he recognized that he himself was sinful and asked the only one who could offer the only thing that would deliver him: Mercy.

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he could have blamed her for taking a bath on the roof where he could see her. He could have rationalized that as the king, he could/should have anything he wanted. When he had Uriah killed, he could have said he was going to die anyway since they were at war. In fact, it was not until David was confronted by the Nathan who used a story to help David to understand the extent of his sin that David said, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:11).

Then, David wrote in Psalm 51:3-4, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight….”

Don’t we have similar tendencies? When we are angry, we blame the person who provoked us. When we exhibit greed and gluttony, we blame our circumstances. On a good day, we will tell the person to whom we were rude how sorry we are, but we might just go as far as to say, “I’m sorry you were offended.” How is that an admission of guilt? So, it is their fault we responded unkindly? Perhaps we blame our inappropriate conduct on the fact that we were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but whose fault was that? It all comes back to the fact that “I am a sinful man.”

This goes against so much popular psychology where the goal is to protect our self-esteem. Popular psychology would have us to affirm ourselves, even our sinful selves, rather than recognizing the real root of the problem. How can this bring healing? When we do not confront the real problem, how can we ever progress along the path to healing and renewing our hearts?

Our sin separates us from God, but the good news is that the Gospel brings us back into relationship. The good news is that our sinful nature can be covered by the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we believe. Although Peter did not feel worthy to be in God’s presence, notice in our key scripture where he positioned himself—at Jesus’ knees. That is where we also belong.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

In Christ,

Judy

Today is the first day of the season of Lent in 2022. While this season is not observed by all denominations–including mine–I like to observe it because it gives me a time for focus and preparation leading up to Easter when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A good starting point for this time of preparation is to meditate on God and his character, his heart.

In this case, the heart is more than the organ that pumps blood. Biblically, the heart is our soul; it is “basket” term for our mind, our will, our emotions, and our conscience. When we say, “I know her heart”, this is what we are referring to—the mind, will, emotions, and conscience. So, how can we learn about God’s heart? A good way is to read the Psalms, especially those written by David. We know that God considered David to be “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). When we read David’s Psalms, we learn about David’s heart; and therefore, we learn about God’s heart.

Here is one of my favorites: Psalm 103. We can learn so much about the character and heart of God from meditating on this Psalm of David.

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,  and his righteousness with their children’s children—
¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹ The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
²¹ Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.
²² Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul.

In Christ,

Judy

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:8-10).

This temptation that Satan presented Jesus with is what you and I deal with every day. Satan is the master of targeted marketing! He knows what we want, and he makes every effort to hand it to us on a silver platter. He makes it look so easy, so beautiful, so tempting. For example, he knew that Jesus had come to serve as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. What Satan did not seem to understand was that Jesus was already supreme ruler of all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Why would he give that up to worship Satan? But Jesus knew that he did not need anything Satan had to offer. He was, and is, our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

What do we want? What is our weak spot? Is it desire for more stuff, more popularity, more power, more recognition, more security, more thrills? My temptations are not the same as yours, but Satan knows what will make each of our mouths water for more and he is dishing it up on a silver platter. Once you are aware of this, it is more obvious. Satan is asking us to exchange the truth for a lie. He is asking us to worship something/anything that God created rather than the Creator Himself.

What we as believers must realize (and continually remind ourselves) is that we are already everything we want to be in Christ, and we already have everything we need in Christ. Of course, we are progressing in sanctification, and the journey is not easy. Jesus was already perfect, so he had different reasons for going through his trials. He was paying the price for our sins so that, despite all our efforts, we would not otherwise come up short. Without the work of Jesus on our behalf, we would never be able to throw off our yoke of enslavement to Satan. Although the reasons for our trials and testing differ from Jesus’s, they are vitally important to our relationship with God, both now and forever. “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Matthew 4:10).

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

In Christ,

Judy

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3).

Jesus had already been in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. He had been fasting. The Scriptures say he was hungry. I know I would be.

I used to be a runner (please do not act too surprised). Back in 1999 and 2000, I trained for a marathon, so I ran some fairly long distances. My goal, which I accomplished, was to complete the first Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April 2000. I developed a training plan, and I was very faithful to this and to my goal, so most weeks I had at least one long run that got progressively longer as the weeks went by in preparation for the ultimate 26.2-mile event. I ran in all types of weather. And it never failed that about halfway through my run that I began to think all kinds of negative thoughts, such as “Why am I doing this?” “You don’t have to do this,” “You are crazy to be doing this,” “You can quit now, and no one would blame you.”

I doubt if these negative messages were coming from the devil, because my goal was not part of a ministry or Christian maturity effort. However, I do understand how easy it can be to be persuaded to stop doing something that is difficult. I do not know if I could have l lasted 40 days and nights all alone in the wilderness without food, knowing I had the power to create food or the ability to just walk back into town and find a meal.

Jesus is both fully God and fully man, and in his humanity, he was tempted. He had those same voices telling him that he did not have to go through this ordeal. Just turn these stones into bread. He was not being tempted with prime rib or cheesecake, just some plain bread, right? But Jesus was in this time of testing as an act of obedience to God, and he knew this was the devil tempting him. What was Jesus’ response to the devil? “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

Jesus knew that he had not just fasted 40 days and 40 nights to wind up giving in. He had a purpose to accomplish, to prove that he could overcome the temptation of the devil, to prove his power over the devil and so identify with humans in our challenges to overcome temptation. To accomplish this goal, Jesus had to do several things.

1. Jesus had to have a purpose and a plan. Whenever I walk into a situation that I know could include temptation, I know I need a plan. For example, if I am going to an event with a buffet, I know I cannot stay near the buffet table without grazing. If I am going to stay on my diet, I need to have a purpose for my attendance at the event that does not include going near the buffet.
2. Jesus had to be in communication with God. It is amazing how the Spirit answers our prayers when we call on him to ask for guidance and strength to overcome.
3. Jesus had to know that it was the devil talking. It was going to be either God or the devil advising him. James says we are tempted by the desires of our heart, so a foundational goal for us is to align our desires with those of God.
4. Jesus had to know the Word of God. This is the only way to accomplish that alignment referenced in #3 above. By studying the Scriptures, we can learn what is of God and what is of the devil.
5. He had to confront the devil with power. As the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 6:10-17, to effectively battle the devil, we must put on the full armor of God which includes  the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Brothers and sisters, we can overcome the temptation of the devil. We just need to follow Jesus’ example and have a goal of obedience, call on the Holy Spirit to conform our hearts to His, pray for guidance and strength, study the Word of God, and boldly call His Name. We need to ask forgiveness when we fail, and then keep on trying. In this way, we will be blessed.

For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:17-18).

In Christ,

Judy

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (Matthew 4:1-2).

Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.  In last week’s devotional, the topic was testing; today we will talk about temptation.  Understand that temptation is not the same as testing in the biblical sense. Temptation comes from the devil and it is for our harm. Testing is from God, and it is for our good. So, you may ask, why would a good God who is all-powerful allow us to be tempted? It all goes back to the Fall, when Adam and Eve believed Satan’s lies rather than God’s truth. The consequences have been severe. Our world is corrupted, and we are corrupted. Even when we accept Christ as our Savior, as long as we live in this fallen world we will continue to be subjected to temptation. But remember is not God who tempts us. As James writes, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. (James 1:13-14).

This does not fully answer the question of why, though, does it? For that, we need to continue to explore the Word of God, and the answer comes in observing Christ in the wilderness. As the verse above states: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” This event was an intentional and critical time in the life and ministry of Christ to prove his power over the devil. In the same way, God allows temptation to occur in our fallen world so that we can learn to be like Christ. Learning to overcome temptation is part of our maturing process, preparing us for ministry.

Although God allows us to be tempted, he does not leave us alone in our temptation. As the Apostle Paul writes: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

So, I think I know what you are thinking, because it is what I am thinking. This is all well and good, but unlike Christ, I have not been 100% effective in overcoming temptation. He is sinless. I am not. I have veered off the path and made some pretty bad decisions in my day. And that does not take into account all my daily actions, thoughts and words that are not Christ-like. So, what does this mean for my maturity and ministry, and yours?

Praise God that Jesus was sensitive to the fact that we are not perfect, and he gives us guidance.

• Jesus advises in the Lord’s prayer to pray to God: “do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
• He also advised us to remain diligent:“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

But because we will not be 100% perfect until we achieve our glorified state after our physical death, God has been gracious to provide for us a way through the mess we sometimes make of our lives.

• Speaking through the Apostle Paul, we know that “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
• And we know that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
• “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
• All we must do is to accept, believe, and receive what Jesus did for us. “…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9).

This is the good news of the Gospel that believers celebrate all year long, but especially during Easter. Jesus Christ died for us, and his death paid the price of our sins. And we can rest assured that no matter how we fall short, we are overcomers through Christ. Because of Jesus’ death on our behalf, we will never be condemned for our sins. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).

In Christ,

Judy