Temptation

Think about a time that you were so hungry that you just thought for sure you could eat a whole cow or something huge.  Maybe you had to fast for some blood work or for some other reason.  I remember back to when I was in labor.  They don’t allow you to eat anything or have hardly anything to drink because of the chance of needing to have a C-section.  I was STARVING by the time I had my son!

Matthew 4:1-3

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. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

When I had my son, it had been about 22 hours without any food.  Hours, not days!  Here Jesus was at 40 days and 40 nights without food!  Jesus was, being tempted to turn the stones into bread.  Could he have done it?  Certainly!  Instead, he responded by saying:

Matthew 4:4

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

As we go through this time of year, known as Lent, I want to have us think about the extraordinary things that Christ did, as an ordinary man.  While we will never measure up to him, we are told to be like Christ.  He came to this earth and faced challenges, just like each of us have.  He has walked a mile in our shoes.  

Today I want you think about what tempts you.  Do you easily give into that temptation or do you stand strong?

Thursday Devotional - Father Abraham

We talked last week about how God credits Christ’s righteousness to those who believe. We don’t earn it. The same was true for Abraham. He wasn’t righteous, but God credited him with Christ’s righteousness.

Paul goes on to explain this further.

Romans 4:9-12   Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham was credited with righteousness not because of who he was or what he did, but because of his faith in who God is and what God would do! (As Kent talked about yesterday, God is faithful and can be trusted to do what He says He will do.)

Most of us are not Jews. However, as Paul says, Abraham is the father of all who believe (remember the children’s song “Father Abraham”??).

My chiropractor is a Jew, but I don’t think he is a true son of Abraham, yet. However, yesterday, he was the one who brought up Jesus in our conversation! I continue to pray for God to use me (and now my kids, too) as witnesses for Him. 

Do you view God’s promises as gifts or as standards to attain? 

Are you a son of Abraham?

Those who place their faith and trust in what God has done and what He’s promised to do in the future are true sons of Abraham!

Alice

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Abraham got up early that morning and hurried out to the place where he had stood in the Lord’s presence.  He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace.

But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.  Genesis 19:27-29

We have dealt with a great deal of tragedy this week.  Whether it be our children in fear of their safety or our way of living being challenged and questioned, there is plenty of stress points that impact us.  There was a time where during these moments I would feel like the world was closing in on me all at once.  Yet today, I feel at peace.  Someone reminded me that God is always in control, and thus, nothing happens without His knowing.  Many of us have worries about tomorrow, and simply do not have answers to tragedies.  But I have faith that He will take care of things.  As I continue my journey of faith, I am reminded of God’s faithfulness, and it is in that I carry forward not only with confidence but also with faith that in the end He will help us to make things right.

We should all have surety in God.  As I was reading the book of Genesis, I got a great deal out of the story of Abraham and Lot.  Abraham was of course one of God’s truly faithful servants such that he could request certain things of God.  One was that He protect the city of Sodom if there were righteous people there.  After further reading, we realize that the ‘righteous people’ there were the people connected to Lot, his nephew who Abraham loved like a son.  This was the covenant God made with him.  When it appeared Sodom and Gomorrah could no longer be saved, angels were sent to save Lot and his family.  There are a couple of things we can draw from this story.  First, through prayer we can actually gain favor with God where He will intercede on our behalf.  Second, God is always true to His word.  His promises are without fail.  He is always faithful, and our goal is to trust in this even as things surrounding us may not quite seem under control.

God is always righteous and always right on time.  A hymnal that always keeps me grounded speaks of God in such a way.  It begins simply:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

As the hymn says, He is never changing, compassionate, and of course faithful.  Let us move with confidence knowing God is always with us for we have asked Jesus Christ in our lives, and for that, we are truly saved.  What can you draw from Abraham’s faith into your own?  What surety can God provide in your life?  My prayer is that we remember who God is in times of uncertainty and indeed how Great is Thy faithfulness.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Into the mist

Hello,

We have had a ton of heavy fog lately – and it reminds me of a time back in 10^th grade when I was walking to school (uphill, both ways…..) on a very foggy morning. I kept looking at the fog as I was approaching it, wondering what it would be like to cross into this fog….but it never happened. I stopped, looked behind me and realized that I was already in this fog. I was so focused on what was coming next, I didn’t realize where I was now.

How true of this in our walk with Jesus also. We can get too focused on what is next, that we don’t take a moment to see where we are right now and look for the opportunities in that moment.

Now, there is nothing wrong with planning -in fact we are encouraged to plan as believers. But if all we are focused on is the future, and not right now-  we will be missing out.

Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (NASB)

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill