Joyful Transformation

Still no electricity. However I got up and went to the gym this morning, so I got my hot shower and my BLOW DRYER!! David had purchased a generator for us last week. Living out in the boonies as we do we often lose power for hours or days. Last night we cranked up the generator, hooked up the refrigerator, the TV and the Satellite receiver. So I did get to see Fox News and Andy Roddick lose in the first round of the US Open! We decided the items in the fridge had already been compromised, so we shut the generator down before going to bed. Man it was quiet. I do like that. It was also a little warm, even with the windows open, I don’t like that quite as much.
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This morning I was thinking about the temptation of Jesus in the dessert. I was thinking I wish Satan would be so obvious with us. You know just come out and say behind door #1 is the greatest thing ever, all you have to do is…(fill in the thing that gets you). But as I thought about this I realized two things. First of all we don’t know how long or in what ways Satan played on the weakness of Jesus. We assume a frontal approach, but that could have just been the final confrontation after building up the levels of weakness that a long fast would bring. Second, we usually are aware of what we are being tempted with. We play these little games in our head. “It is just this one time”, “I am not really hurting anybody”. “God, didn’t really mean this, not for me.” Yes the reality is we often make a conscious decision to give in to the temptation of Satan. We fool ourselves into believing that we are still in control and can pull ourselves up and out of any situation we might get into.

I am someone who has had a lifelong struggle with controlling my weight. When my conviction is firm and I know that I am not going to eat the wrong things, the temptation of food (even chocolate) does not affect me. I can easily walk away from it. But when I am not on a program or when I have relaxed my standards a little while on vacation, I then find it hard to resist the food that I know is not good for me. I also find rich, highly fattening foods somewhat repulsive when I am working out.

In the same way, we must keep our spiritual convictions strong. Our mind has to be made up before the “temptation” is ever offered up on a platter. And I think that we will find that when we are busy doing the work of Jesus, those things that once looked so appealing will have lost their luster. But this is not a 40 day program. I must make a life-long, constantly renewable, commitment to walking as Jesus walked and to saying NO to Satan.