Saturday, March 12, 2016

Luke 4:1-2

Luke 4:1-2 
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and He was being led in the Spirit into the wilderness while being tested for forty days by the devil. And He did not eat anything in those days.  And after they were being completed, He hungered.    

Thoughts for Today 

First Thought: 

There are so many neat things about this passage that it is important to take this passage slowly.  As we look over the first of the two verses, there is a clear message that jumps out.  God does not want us to enter into His service unprepared.  How do we know this?  Take a look at Jesus.  The Bible is clear that these events happen after Jesus' baptism – after Jesus had the opportunity to be filled up with the Holy Spirit.  Before Jesus can go to meet His chief adversary, God wants Him to be ready.  God wants the same from each of us.  We can go out into the world, of course.  Yet, He wants us to take advantage of the opportunity to be prepared for life in the world, too. 

How do you prepare for interaction with the world?  How have you felt God trying to lead you into preparation? 

Second Thought: 

The second thing that we can learn is that God does not always called us into the safe and secure moments.  God led Jesus out into the wilderness by the Spirit.  God knew that when Jesus was in the wilderness that He would meet the devil.  Yet, God called Him out there anyways.  God's plan for Jesus led Him into temptation and trial.  If we want to reach the world, we cannot always stay safe and secure.  Sometimes we have to walk towards the dark moment knowing that we have been prepared  by God and He is with us. 

When have you run from a difficult moment to which God was calling you?  When have you embraced a difficult moment and felt God bring you through it? 

Third Thought: 

Jesus hungered.  I think that this verse is every bit as important as the verse in John 11 that tells us that Jesus wept.  These verses are significant because they remind us that Jesus is human.  He felt human emotion.  He knew suffering.  He knew hunger.  He knew temptation.  He knew the human existance.  He conquered it.  We can rely upon Him because He knows what it is like to be human and wrestle with our nature. 

Are you comforted by knowing that Jesus has felt what you feel every day?  Why does it make it easier to serve a God who sent His Son into our existence so that He could know what it feels like to be human? 

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 4:3-13 

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