The Path Toward Your Promise
1 Corinthians 10:13, HCSB
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Matthew 4:1
Let’s pause here for a second.
Why haven’t I wrestled with the idea that promises comes through desert temptations?
The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness toward His great temptation. That’s a hard truth to swallow.
Is it probable that the same Spirit that lives and dwells in each of us, leads us toward desert temptations of our own?
I have talked with many believers who prefer to run from life’s biggest challenges. When faced with a closed door, they walk away simply because it is a difficult door to open. In Matthew seven we are told: narrow is the gate and difficult is the way. A narrow gate is much harder to pass through. Basically, we should expect some challenges. Closed doors are simply doors that need a greater push to get to the other side. That is not to say we need to open every closed door that meets us, but it is a good reminder that when things get difficult, and pivotal moments ignite our flight or fight response, flight is not always the proper response. Don’t you dare give up the fight just before your promise! We must be willing to journey to places we believe we are incapable of going.
We all have God–given promises available to us and while we have an ultimate promise, the promise of salvation, I believe the individual promises of our Humble King just might hold the keys to our calling. I believe the Lord is desperate to open the storehouses, filled to the brim with blessing, that our lack of courage and faith cannot seem to receive in confidence. Just as we can (and should) build memorials of God’s goodness, as did Joshua when entering the promised land, we can also build doubt, stuck in our own personal forty-year wasteland.
We must go beyond our barren state to enter into Gods promise. Divine promises come through valleys of temptation, valleys of weeping (Baca). The barren valley is the wasteland just before your promise.
Take Courage! Your God-given promise requires it. Face your fears! Your destiny is beyond them.
Your promise will take you on desert journeys into wastelands you would never dare dream you would go, but your promise will beholden a mighty God, ever before you.
Revelation 12:11 (Berean Study Bible)
They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.
O death, where is your sting?
James 1:2-8, NIV
Trials and Temptations
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double–minded and unstable in all they do.
Prayer for today:
Thank you for the blessing of God as man. Thank you that you came to live and dwell among us, God in the flesh, tempted just as we are. Spirit, lead us where our trust is without borders. Give us great courage, great faith, to fight for our promise. Don’t let us turn back to the desert when there is land flowing with milk and honey ahead of us and the Great Jehovah leading us there. Remove all doubt and fill us with faith, faith that moves mountains. Thank you for faith that costs. Thank you for challenging faith, not easy faith- faith that beckons us to face our fears. Do not let us die in the desert of doubt, when there is a land flowing with promises before us. Oh, that we may fully live in the fought for, joy filled, land of your promise. Amen!