February 25 Devotion

From Disciples 2007:

Throughout the season of Lent, we become more acutely aware that temptation waits for all of us. It waits like an animal in the shadows ready to pounce upon its prey. This experience has always been so for the human family. Temptation waited for Cain before he slew Abel. It crouched until the right angry, jealous moment. Before Cain knew it, he had been overcome. Temptation also waits for you and for me when we are angry beyond words -- providing an excuse to do some harm to those who anger us. Perhaps for this reason, Jesus suggested that an angry person was just as culpable as a murderer.

Jesus is in a wilderness for this particular time of temptation; temptation also waits for us in the wild places of life. Wild places take the form of circumstances so out of the ordinary that we could be persuaded to suspend the rules, to respond to the seduction of the moment, or to sin for the good of the order. Temptation waited for Moses in a wild place. In a wild moment of realization that life was not fair, Moses willingly looked, firs this way then that, before slaying an Egyptian. The wild places are many; the temptation to exaggerate, to bend the truth, to outright lie waits around every bend in the road.

Temptation waits for us, but we are not powerless. Jesus is not powerless. As a hungry mortal, he refuses the justifiable self-indulgence of turning stones into bread. As a person with hidden strength, he refuses an ostentatious show of power. As a person of royal destiny, he does not requires the attendance of angels to prove his worth to onlookers. The One who pitched a tent among us proved by example that yielding to temptation is not inevitable. Jesus teaches by example; neither moments of weakness or wild places need give way to temptation. Even in the wild places, temptation wait for Jesus in vain!

Submitted by Jim Ray

An Evening Prayer

Dear God,

During our Lenten Journey, we are reminded of the time Jesus spent in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry. We remember that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove. Then he was led into the wilderness.

We know that when we are full of the Holy Spirit, we are vulnerable to the temptations of the world. We are tempted to take an easy way, rather than to stay on the straight and narrow path to your will. Although your grace is free, following your path is costly. We must give up ourselves, and take up a cross and follow you. Forgive us for our reluctance to give in to your will, to let go of the things that make us comfortable.

Although we know we will be tempted at times, we ask you to give us the strength to withstand temptation. We know we will experience time in the desert or the wilderness, Lord, and while we do not look forward to such times, we can look back at them and see how they strengthened us and prepared us, and we are able to give you thanks.

Prepare us anew, this Lenten Season, to be drawn closer to you, to be more like you, and to do your will with trust and selfless obedience. Lord, when we emerge from our journey we invite you to love through us; weep through us; and speak through us; that we may we live up to our calling as the Body of Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Jeff Taylor