When you’re in the wilderness -- when you feel beaten up and beaten down, abandoned, alone, helpless, tempted, tested, and tried -- take heart. There is a way out. Follow Jesus. In his wilderness time of tempting, testing, and trials, being beaten and battered by the devil and doubt, he is our example to follow and our hope to hold onto. He gives us the knowledge of power and shows us how to use this power against our enemy. In the last message, we looked at the power of knowing that we are not alone and the power of knowing that we are God’s beloved daughters and sons. This "Ispirations" concludes our discussion of this power and how to use it.
Know your resources. God gave you a mind. When faced with temptation or when you feel pulled this way and that and are uncertain, ask three simple questions: To what purpose? For whose benefit? At what cost? Until 1980, conservative evangelical Christians held divorce as contrary to God’s law. In the presidential election of 1980, the "religious right" saw the conservative and popular Ronald Reagan as their political savior who promised to lead them out of the political wilderness into the halls of power. But Reagan was divorced. To gain political power, the religious right sacrificed one of their core values -- the inviolability of the sanctity of marriage. We have Scripture. The Psalm says that Scripture is "a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." St. Paul calls Scripture "the Sword of the Spirit." And we have the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. Christians have called the Holy Eucharist "the medicine of immortality" and, like the manna God gave in the wilderness, "food for the journey" through our wildernesses. So in our spiritual struggles and temptations, we are not without resources -- our minds, Scripture, and Sacrament.
Know your enemy. Temptation and sin and the devil do not appear with ugly faces. We are not tempted by what is ugly or unattractive but what looks pleasing and desirable. The devil is also called Lucifer, "light-bearer." Satan was an angel in heaven. We are attracted by sin. The devil uses what God has created good and for our benefit by making it an end in itself. Adam and Eve ate the fruit not because she was hungry but because she lusted after what the serpent promised if she ate the fruit -- divine wisdom. But the wisdom they gained led to mutual blaming, shame, and alienation from one another and from God. God didn’t exile them from the Garden. They turned their backs on the paradise God made for them. As Jesus said, Satan is a liar and the father of lies. And how do we unmask the lies? "Test the spirits," St. Paul advises. Hold the promise against the Truth that is Jesus. And the Truth will keep us free from Satan’s lies.
"Knowledge is power." Jesus was called Rabbi, Teacher. To be a disciple of Christ is to be a student of Professor Jesus. The knowledge Jesus offers is the most power-full knowledge in the world. It is the know-how to resist temptation, overcome evil and sin, and come through our wilderness. But there is a cost to this knowledge -- that we take up our cross and follow Jesus. And we’ll be able to withstand anything the Enemy throws at us.
