Scripture: Matthew 3:16-4:11
Journal: What is the biggest lie you tend to buy into? How does believing that lie affect the way you live? What is the truth? How does the truth set you free?
Reflection: The biggest temptation in life is to give in to the lie that we are not who God says we are. Therefore, the voices we choose to listen to are key. Will we listen to the voice of the culture, the voice of our enemy, or the voice of the God who made us beautifully and loves us dearly? It’s up to us. Will we listen to the voice of the one who came to kill, steal, and destroy, or will we listen to the voice of the One who came to give us life abundantly? (John 10:10)
The voice of our God says: “You are my son,
my daughter, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” And the voice of our enemy says: “If you
really are the son or daughter of God, prove it.” I don’t know about you, but I have spent just
about every day of my life trying to prove to myself and my world that I am
worth loving. It is as consuming as it
is exhausting.
For we live in a world that says, “You are
what you do, you are how you look, or you are what you have. It’s all about how you perform, about how you
stack up against those around you. Do
more, be more, and have more or you will get left behind. Others will get the attention and affection
you so desperately desire. After all, there’s
only so much love and admiration to go around, so you better make sure you get
yours, even if it’s at the expense of others.”
But we don’t have to live
that way. We don’t have to live according
to the lies. After all, Jesus himself said
that it is “the truth that sets us free.”
God created us for so much more than the scarcity we tend to live out
of. He created us for abundance. His love is both unlimited and unfailing, it
will not run out. He is the only one who
can give us the love and affection that is able to satisfy our deepest longings. You see, identity can never be achieved, it
can only be bestowed. And it can only be
bestowed by the One who made us. We are
of infinite value in his eyes, not because of what we do or how we look or what
we have, but because of who we are. Or,
more appropriately, because of whose we are. Only when we live out of that truth can we
have any hope of living the free and whole and loving lives he created us to
live.
After all, that’s why the
Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness in the first place. It was an offensive move. It was to wage war. It was restore our God-given identities. The forty days and forty nights in the desert
were symbolic of the forty years the people of God wondered in the
wilderness. The temptations that Jesus
faced, and defeated, were pretty much the same temptations the Israelites
succumbed to. Jesus was reversing the
effects of the fall. He was going into
the wilderness to do battle with the enemy for our God-breathed
identities. It was a journey that began
in the wilderness and ended at the cross and the empty tomb. Jesus was showing us that we, like him, are
the beloved. He was making a way for us
to reclaim, and live out of, our true identities.
And even though it is a
battle that has already been won, we certainly don’t live as though it
has. For some reason we still let the
lies enslave us. Jesus has given us the power
and the ability and the freedom to reclaim and live out of his deep love and
affection, rather than out of the lies of the enemy. The only question is: Will we? Will we listen to and live out of his truth,
or will we continue to be controlled by the lies of the enemy? The choice is ours.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank for the truth that sets us
free. Help us to believe it to the core
of our being. Amen.
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