tearing down idols in the desert
This morning in my Sunday school class I was trying to explain fasting.
The kiddos had some rather interesting ideas of what fasting is and why someone would do it. The most bizarre lead to me making the groundbreaking statement,
"No honey, fasting originated before ketchup was a thing, this was pre-ketchup."
The conversation was spurred from the fact that we have been studying through the life of Christ. Today we reached the story of his temptation in the wilderness.
As silly as the conversation got, I have. Even thinking about Christ in the wilderness all day. Even Christ had to draw away to be in the presence of God.
Before He set off to begin his ministry on earth He followed the Lords leading into the wilderness to fast and draw near to the Lord. Then guess what, the enemy couldn't leave that alone and as he always does, came poking around trying to ruin everything.
I have seen this happen in my own life and unlike Christ, I confess that he has succeeded wayyyyy too many times at knocking me off course. I dedicate myself to pursuing the Lord and the enemy sweeps in.
Today as I was walking through the story with my kiddos, I noticed that the enemy used three different approaches in his tactics.
First, he approached Christ at the most basic level, his basic needs.
"Turn those rocks into bread."
I mean...40 days? Jesus was hungry. I have seen myself fail under the same attack so many times. I'm stressed, I'm busy, life is hard, so therefore it's an excuse to blow off the commitments I have made to myself and the Lord in the most basic ways. Food, exercise, etc.
Then he comes at Christ by offering Him, in essence, a shortcut.
"I have tons of power in the world, I'll give it all back to you if you just worship me for like a sec...nbd really"
And of course Christ reminds him who is the only one deserving of worship.
But don't we do that? Aren't we always searching for shortcuts to get to where we are going. Now I know there is nothing WRONG with the things that we have that make life easier. Trust me, I'm the first one to admit that I would fall apart without technology and such, but when it becomes obsessive, we stray off into worship. We may not even recognize it as idolatry but it is and it can consume us.
The last temptation is in an effort to test Christ faith in the goodness and provisions of God.
"Toss yourself off the roof Jesus, angels will catch you? Won't they?"
Ugh. I can't stand the devil.
He is CONSTANTLY trying to sway our understanding of the goodness of God. He wants us to test it. He wants us questioning why bad things happen. Why did God show up THIS time but not THAT time? When He can make us test God on OUR standards of goodness then he has us exactly where he wants us.
I admit. I am guilty of all these things. Getting distracted by my basic needs and knocked of course by unsatisfactory things to supply them. Christ didn't need to turn stones into bread, angels were going to attend to Him. He just needed to wait for the Lord.
It's the same with those "shortcuts" when I am not careful they become less time saver and more time waster and distraction, i.e. Idolatry.
Then there is the way I question the Lord. Sometimes it's soooo blatant and other times I don't even realizing I'm doing it. I don't know his intentions and motives and I question His goodness because I've jumped off a ledge, so to speak, and He doesn't seem to be catching me.
As I sit and think about it, all of these things are their own version of idolatry because it is the worship of something lesser, basic needs, shortcuts, or even a lesser version of the perfect and holy God.
There is a song called "Clear The Stage" that explains idolatry extremely well. It says:
"Anything I put before my God is an idol
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol
Anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol
Anything that I give all my love is an idol."
Idolatry is not always one of the ways we recognize the enemy at work in our lives, because we think of it as bowing down to a statue. In reality, it is more free and rampant today than potentially ever before. We bow down and worship lesser things non stop and may not even realizing it's happening.
I can name some of my own:
Self
Food
Friendships
Family
Technology
Entertainment
Dreams
Work
That's just a small list. Nothing on that list is BAD but when they take the place of Christ or I can't follow the Lord in them because I am too obsessed with my own ideas they become idols.
Anything I put before my God...
As I think of Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness I can't help but ponder this journey I am on.
I'll be real, my first forty days weren't perfect, but they were some of the strongest of my journey. After that, the enemy came in hard and has knocked me down so many times. He has come from a variety of angles to try to keep me off course and keep me from following Jesus with my whole being.
As I write this, I am ready for another forty days of focus and intentional quiet before the Lord. I know however in doing so that I am asking for the enemy to come in and tempt me like he always does.
Here's the thing though...as the enemy tempts, the Lord tests. I want to stop failing the tests.
I want to thrive.
So here I go, just another leg of a long journey...If you're looking for me, I'll just be over here, tearing down idols in the desert.
The kiddos had some rather interesting ideas of what fasting is and why someone would do it. The most bizarre lead to me making the groundbreaking statement,
"No honey, fasting originated before ketchup was a thing, this was pre-ketchup."
The conversation was spurred from the fact that we have been studying through the life of Christ. Today we reached the story of his temptation in the wilderness.
As silly as the conversation got, I have. Even thinking about Christ in the wilderness all day. Even Christ had to draw away to be in the presence of God.
Before He set off to begin his ministry on earth He followed the Lords leading into the wilderness to fast and draw near to the Lord. Then guess what, the enemy couldn't leave that alone and as he always does, came poking around trying to ruin everything.
I have seen this happen in my own life and unlike Christ, I confess that he has succeeded wayyyyy too many times at knocking me off course. I dedicate myself to pursuing the Lord and the enemy sweeps in.
Today as I was walking through the story with my kiddos, I noticed that the enemy used three different approaches in his tactics.
First, he approached Christ at the most basic level, his basic needs.
"Turn those rocks into bread."
I mean...40 days? Jesus was hungry. I have seen myself fail under the same attack so many times. I'm stressed, I'm busy, life is hard, so therefore it's an excuse to blow off the commitments I have made to myself and the Lord in the most basic ways. Food, exercise, etc.
Then he comes at Christ by offering Him, in essence, a shortcut.
"I have tons of power in the world, I'll give it all back to you if you just worship me for like a sec...nbd really"
And of course Christ reminds him who is the only one deserving of worship.
But don't we do that? Aren't we always searching for shortcuts to get to where we are going. Now I know there is nothing WRONG with the things that we have that make life easier. Trust me, I'm the first one to admit that I would fall apart without technology and such, but when it becomes obsessive, we stray off into worship. We may not even recognize it as idolatry but it is and it can consume us.
The last temptation is in an effort to test Christ faith in the goodness and provisions of God.
"Toss yourself off the roof Jesus, angels will catch you? Won't they?"
Ugh. I can't stand the devil.
He is CONSTANTLY trying to sway our understanding of the goodness of God. He wants us to test it. He wants us questioning why bad things happen. Why did God show up THIS time but not THAT time? When He can make us test God on OUR standards of goodness then he has us exactly where he wants us.
I admit. I am guilty of all these things. Getting distracted by my basic needs and knocked of course by unsatisfactory things to supply them. Christ didn't need to turn stones into bread, angels were going to attend to Him. He just needed to wait for the Lord.
It's the same with those "shortcuts" when I am not careful they become less time saver and more time waster and distraction, i.e. Idolatry.
Then there is the way I question the Lord. Sometimes it's soooo blatant and other times I don't even realizing I'm doing it. I don't know his intentions and motives and I question His goodness because I've jumped off a ledge, so to speak, and He doesn't seem to be catching me.
As I sit and think about it, all of these things are their own version of idolatry because it is the worship of something lesser, basic needs, shortcuts, or even a lesser version of the perfect and holy God.
There is a song called "Clear The Stage" that explains idolatry extremely well. It says:
"Anything I put before my God is an idol
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol
Anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol
Anything that I give all my love is an idol."
Idolatry is not always one of the ways we recognize the enemy at work in our lives, because we think of it as bowing down to a statue. In reality, it is more free and rampant today than potentially ever before. We bow down and worship lesser things non stop and may not even realizing it's happening.
I can name some of my own:
Self
Food
Friendships
Family
Technology
Entertainment
Dreams
Work
That's just a small list. Nothing on that list is BAD but when they take the place of Christ or I can't follow the Lord in them because I am too obsessed with my own ideas they become idols.
Anything I put before my God...
As I think of Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness I can't help but ponder this journey I am on.
I'll be real, my first forty days weren't perfect, but they were some of the strongest of my journey. After that, the enemy came in hard and has knocked me down so many times. He has come from a variety of angles to try to keep me off course and keep me from following Jesus with my whole being.
As I write this, I am ready for another forty days of focus and intentional quiet before the Lord. I know however in doing so that I am asking for the enemy to come in and tempt me like he always does.
Here's the thing though...as the enemy tempts, the Lord tests. I want to stop failing the tests.
I want to thrive.
So here I go, just another leg of a long journey...If you're looking for me, I'll just be over here, tearing down idols in the desert.
Comments
Post a Comment