Prayer and Purpose

Jesus endured the greatest testing any human will ever endure when He spent 40 days in the wilderness without food or drink, and He was tried and tempted (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:12-13; Lk 4:1-13. While Jesus walked on this earth He was fully God, yet also fully man. By allowing Himself to become man He was able to truly be tempted by Satan's lies. He was alone during this time, alone in the sense that there was no other human with Him. However, this does not require that we should do spiritual battle alone. Indeed, Jesus shortly before being arrested asks His disciples to pray for Him in Gethsemane, a time when He knew His time to die was drawing near and the temptation to not die must have been brutal (Mt 26:36-45; Mk 14:32-41; Lk 22:39-46).  Paul instructs us to keep watch over ourselves to avoid temptation and to "[b]ear one another's burdens" (Gal 6:2). Bearing one another up helps us, as Paul says, to not begin to think to highly of ourselves, and just like a yoke,...

Spiritual warfare is real. We need to be prepared and know how to handle ourselves in the midst of a battle. The strongest attacks rarely come along when you are ready for them or at least not when you are expecting them. Some of that is because Satan is sneaky and he often attacks in such a way that you don’t realize at first that it is him. Doubt or fear creeps in and you just attribute it to your situation or your own reasoning, but it may not be. No matter where you are at in your walk with God, remember to keep your eyes on Him. He can handle all your doubts, fear, pain, suffering and anything else you can throw at Him, whether it is just a result of the fallen world, or a strategized attack to fight for your soul. The enemy has been defeated And death couldn’t hold You down We’re gonna lift our voice in victory We’re gonna make Your praises loud. [1] The above lyrics from Hillsong’s “Shout unto God”, along with Newboys’ “He Reigns,” bring a smile to my face in rem...