My Temptation? Or Christ's?

There was a blog post posted here which I wrote yesterday. It was a classic example of the struggle which I’m about to describe to you – and me losing in that struggle: or rather; ME winning in the struggle—and the life of God in me—losing. My pride and self-righteous annoyance over a certain situation prompted an arrogant and angry spurt of words…and I was foolish enough to publish it…not only here, but on Facebook. I’m sure you are curious to read the article in question if you missed it, but I removed it, lest a visitor to my blog should land on that particular post and get the wrong idea of my purpose here. I did not wish to jeopardize the mission which God has given me here, so it is now deleted.

Today in Sunday School, my pastor talked about a retreat he took last week to get his head straight and heart right with God. He talked to us in that class today, about the Spirit of God who abides in us or “makes His tabernacle in us” as it means literally in that passage of Scripture (John 14:23)…The tabernacle was the place where the glory of God rested. It was where God had His throne on earth before Christ paved the way for it to be in us through the Holy Spirit.

So if my body and my being are the dwelling place of God on this earth…what does that mean? How will it affect the things I do and how I live and the effect I have in this world? Well, today I also read Oswald Chambers again in My Utmost for His Highest for this date (9-19) and this short devotional pretty much summed up the praying, learning, and musing I’d been doing all day.

At first glance, if you were to read this devotional, you would think that the two topics are unrelated…but upon deeper thought Chambers pretty much sums up the response to the above questions. He is talking about us following Christ and staying with Him in the midst of his temptations. (The Scripture is Luke 22:28-some translations translate the word for “temptations” as “trials” but it really should be temptations). Chambers says that the temptations that we face are not OUR temptations but temptations to the life of Christ in us. Our temptations are HIS temptations and visa verse. HIS honor is in our hands and in our bodies. Will we uphold it or disgrace it? (Remember that the Glory of God and the Spirit of Christ make their home in us.)

This got me thinking about the fact that the disciples literally SLEPT while Christ struggled with his biggest temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was put to death. Sounds like a failure to me! Yet in Luke 22, He commends them for having remained with Him throughout His temptation. I got to thinking what that meant. I think that Chambers is right…that the choices we make and the way that we live is either supporting Christ in His struggles or not. And the fact that the disciples all were faithful to the end of their lives (where they were martyred)…led Christ to make this statement prophetically. This gave me great comfort as I've been doing some "sleeping" myself!

So what exactly IS Christ’s temptation? I believe that the biggest one that He faced throughout His entire life was to put Him SELF in the driver’s seat and put God, His Father, in the back. Ye’shua (Jesus in Hebrew) continuously makes this statement during His earthly life “I do nothing of my own will but only the will of the One who sent Me” or “The words I speak to you are not my own but are the words of my Father in Heaven.” This was Christ making public His resolution to have victory over His biggest temptation which was to put His flesh and His flesh’s desires: for food, for sleep, for power, for taking the easy way instead of the RIGHT way, and for His very life and to put all of this ahead of the will of God who tabernacled in Him. And Jesus, I’m sure had a libido…so He must have struggled with those temptations as well…as well as the desire to marry and have a normal life and a family…But He was here on a mission.

Over the past months, I’ve lost sight of the mission that I’m on in this body and with this life of mine. I’ve put my own comforts and desires ahead of the will of Christ and the Father and the Spirit (who is the essence of both of them), who dwell in me. I’ve subdued and dampened the glory of God – which should have been shining brightly all around me wherever I go, bringing the very presence of God into all the places where I set my feet – and tried, instead, to shine the spotlight on myself. This was not a sudden or a conscious shift in my actions or attitudes. It was a slow erosion….but in the end…The life of God suffered in me and was dishonored. I chose my own comfort over my commitment.

I want to say here and now, “May the Spirit of the living God overshadow me. May HE shine brightly and may I fade into the shadow caused by his radiance. May I do nothing to hinder that radiance or to usurp His rule in my life. May He say of me in the end, that I too, stood with Him in His temptations.”