Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well.
This week I want to focus on temptation.
I was watching Last Days in the Desert recently, starring Ewan McGregor as Christ. The movie’s executive producer, Erik Lokkesmoe, describes Last Days in the Desert as an “imagined chapter in Scripture.” It’s fiction, in other words, not wholly unlike The Young Messiah. And like Messiah, Last Days uses that fiction to ruminate on the character of Christ. It is a good watch.
Jesus’ actual time spent in the desert We know something about but We do not know everything about it. One can only imagine the difficulty back then of remaining hydrated, surviving while fasting and what crises Jesus faced.
The Devil was with Jesus. How did Jesus treat him?
How do You resist temptation?
1 Corinthians 10:13
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
Our world is full of temptations. There are far more now than there were back then in the time of Jesus. Does that mitigate?
Matthew 26:41
“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
No, We are still to be judged on our sins, however many they were. We are to be judged as humans and are expected to be weak but that is no excuse for abuse of our free will before God.
The prayer below may help You. God bless You all. Be good. Be Your new self.
I bow before you in worship. I want to submit and surrender myself completely and unreservedly in every area of my life to you, Almighty God. Your will for me is always my best. Lord Jesus, I worship you and I want to love and cherish you and treasure you above all else. I recognise that you alone are worthy to receive all glory, honour, and praise. I am thankful that you came as my righteous representative, and that through your work of atonement on the cross you have completely forgiven me of all my sin and broken through the other side of death to life on my behalf. You have given me eternal life in your Name. You have given me your perfect righteousness with which I am now able to draw near to the throne of God with confidence. And I will receive an eternal inheritance as a co-heir with you of your glory in your eternal kingdom with a resurrection like your resurrection. I am thankful that the blessings and honour the Lord Jesus Christ won on the cross and by His resurrection have been completely given to me, and that I am seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm. I do, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, hold fast to my place in Christ and with Christ in the heavenly realm, with all powers of darkness and all spirit forces of wickedness under my feet. I affirm that the Word of God is true, and I choose to live today in the light of God’s Holy Word. I choose, Heavenly Father, to believe all your promises to me in Jesus Christ. I want to live in obedience to you and in fellowship with you. By faith and in total dependence upon your Holy Spirit, I put off the old self and put on Christ’s crucifixion — where the Lord Jesus Christ completely cleansed me and washed me and sanctified me from all my sin. And I put on the new self in Christ and stand in all the blessings of the resurrection, where the Lord Jesus Christ provided for me complete freedom and power to resist all sin and temptation in my life. Therefore, today I put off the old self with its pride, self-will, self-centredness and idolatry, and I put on the new self with its humility, Christ-centredness, and surrender to the will of God. I put off the old self with its selfishness, and I put on the new self with its love, servanthood, and selflessness in Christ Jesus. I put off the old self with its fear, insecurity, and unbelief, and I put on the new self with its courage, boldness, security, and trust in all the promises of God for me in Christ Jesus. I put off the old self with all its deceitful and destructive lusts and sexual impurity, and I put on the new self with all its righteousness, holiness, purity, and self-control in Christ Jesus. I put off today the old self in all things, and put on my new self in the Lord Jesus Christ as my power and freedom to reject and resist all the sins of the old self, and I choose to reject and resist them now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen