heir to something
First off let me say that Thanksgiving was a blast. Not only did I get to see my family whom I love dearly, I was able to see several family friends, and reacquaint with an old friend from high school. Today, however, has been a little different. Today, life, or maybe I should say reality, has snuck back rather quickly. I was hoping to hold on to the holiday for at least one more day, however, when I woke this morning I realized I hadn’t written a blog in a while, answered emails, and I needed to start working on a sermon that I will be preaching soon.
It is interesting to me, how after every high in life there is a low. Not that reality is always a low, but the fun and excitement of holidays, birthdays (if you still consider those good times), good reports, wins, and spiritual highs (thinking about church camps, concerts, revivals, etc.) only seem to last for a moment. The truth is parties and celebrations don’t last forever, or at least they can’t. Money has to be made for bills have to be paid.
I hate that not only we have to work at life, we have to work to live life. I would love to be able to sit around and not do much of anything and be ok with life. I would love to not have any cares about what the days ahead hold, for my needs would be met financially, emotionally, etc., and I could live freely without worrying about being good or bad, or sinning or whatever. My reality is that everything about “life” is hard. I have to work, I have to trust others and God (both are very difficult for me), and I have to fight temptations of all sorts.
To pick up where we left off in the last blog, Jesus was baptized by John and God said He was pleased. So we have Jesus then getting out of the water, and was probably drying off with all those people there watching and probably even cheering, clapping, and worshiping the Lord, since God Himself spoke after Jesus’ dunking. And then in Mark 1:12-13, after all the excitement, Jesus had to face the reality of life, or the wilderness, and in this wilderness Jesus was tempted by the devil.
Mark doesn’t go into what Jesus was tempted with, but in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-3 we find that Jesus was tempted to prove himself, and if he would give in to the devil’s temptations, the devil would give him the world. Now, I don’t know exactly what that means other than that Jesus could be ruler of all earthly desires, in other words the bad stuff (greed, sloth, etc.). The devil doesn’t tempt me with being ruler of the world, but he does tempt me daily with being ruler of myself. I give in so much to ruling myself that I can’t imagine how much I would give in if I could be ruler of the world.
But what amazes me is that Jesus refrained from accepting the offer to rule the world. I wonder if Jesus knew at this point in his life that He was the son of God. I wonder if He knew that He and the Father was one. I wonder if He knew that the Kingdom He was ushering in was the Everlasting Kingdom. I wonder if He knew He would defeat death to live forever. If He knew that, and I want to think He did, it makes sense that Jesus would decline the offer to be over something that wasn’t going to last.
If you are like me, it is hard to sometimes think that the party will end, yet wake up finding it difficult to last several hours without wanting to do something I shouldn’t. Many times unfortunately, I give in to the devil, thinking that what he has to offer is better or more satisfying than anything else. The truth however, is that we aren’t that different than Jesus, although don’t make the mistake thinking we are the same or even better. We too are children of God, we too can help usher in the Everlasting Kingdom, and with Christ we too can defeat death. As Christians, we are joint heirs to the throne of God (Romans 8:17)!!!
Just as the angels or God attended to Jesus during his 40 days in the wilderness, He attends to us too. Today, I am going to let the angels tend to me. I may not have actual angels beside me, but I have my friends and family and they are angelic enough. As we come off of the excitement of Thanksgiving, let’s continue to surround ourselves with the people God has placed in our lives to support and love us, and walk boldly knowing that whatever temptations come our way no offer is better than Christ’s offer to live and reign with Him for eternity. We can choose to be heirs to ourselves or heirs to God. I want the latter.