Monday, September 21, 2009

Matthew

So, I'm reading again in Matthew. Chapter 4, where Jesus is led by the Spirit (meaning His Father's Holy Spirit) into the desert to the enemy. The Bible says Jesus fasted 40 days and nights ... He's in the desert, His flesh is hungry for food, and satan is there to taunt. I get hungry and I go immediately to satisfy that hunger. Instead, Jesus obeyed. He quoted the words of God, and obeyed them. Period. Straight up. He ignored the needs of His flesh, and He obeyed. And He waited ... and the Bible says satan left .... Then God showed up and His angels attended to the needs of Jesus.

All I can say is wow. I'm not sure I've ever done that. I've been in the desert. Mostly because of my choices, sometimes as the result of the actions of others ... or has it been? Nowadays I'm not so sure of that ... maybe my time in the desert has happened because all along my Father has been leading me ... and He led me to the wilderness. But then my sin kicks in when I stay there and go into despair? Or is it sin when I jump out of the wilderness into some other comfort zone ... throughout my life that comfort has looked like many other things: destructive emotions, promiscuous sex, material stuff, gluttony, drugs, alcohol, arranging my own life and my own path ... you name it, I've been there. Maybe if I just hung in and waited in the wilderness, waiting (as in "wait on Me"), just maybe if I trusted Him and obeyed His words, then maybe I'd walk out of that wilderness and discover the path He has written just for me. A new path that is absolutely nothing like any other I've chosen before. Not that it's safe, in fact it might be a bit scary, but it will be a path full of adventure, written into my heart as the desires I've so effectively buried, full of life as I've never dared to imagine for myself.

I was caught off guard a bit by verses 12-16. It says that when Jesus heard that John had been put in jail, He returned to Galilee, then left Nazareth and lived in Capernaum ... to fulfill what Isaiah prophesied about Him. So that got me thinking. Jesus knew the prophecies about Him, and He knew what road to take every step of the way. I think that's one of the hardest things about life .... I don't know (sometimes) which path to take. He did. So I started thinking about what that means for me. On the face of it, it seems kind of unfair. But then again, my life story isn't about me, it's about God's glory revealed in my story. So maybe Jesus already had a roadmap, but He was also human. I guess his biggest advantage was this: He has a personal, intimate, love relationship with the Father, so much so that His words on earth were the Father's words. God in the flesh. So, again, where does that leave me? Maybe, just maybe, if I begin to obey God, put my nose just between his shoulder blades and follow Him, regardless of how crazy the terrain is looking to me, maybe I can develop that personal, intimate, love relationship with the father, which will give me ears to hear His voice and eyes to see the path He has put in front of me.

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