We Too Will Inherit God’s Care

October 13, 2014

We Too Will Inherit God’s Care

And a voice from heaven said,

“This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

Matthew 3:17

In the preceding verse, we learn that, “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him” (Matthew 3:16). Jesus then heard a voice from heaven and “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). Sometime later, perhaps one evening when Jesus and his disciples were sitting around a fire, Jesus told his disciples what happened when he was baptized. Jesus alone saw the heavens open, he alone saw the dove, he alone heard the voice, and he alone sensed the leading of the Spirit. The others present by the river that day only saw Jesus go under the water and upon rising from the water walk away.

In the wilderness, Jesus processed all that he had experienced, heard and seen. During that time, he made his decision to trust that God was at work in him, and to accept by faith the future God had ordained for him. Jesus’ first act in ministry was accepting his identity as God’s dearly loved Son, who brings (God) great joy. For his act of faith, he was immediately tempted by Satan.

I think this is the model for all of the followers of Jesus. Our first step in ministry is to accept our new identity as the beloved of God with whom He is well pleased. Such a step of faith is contradictory to all of our natural senses and cultural norms. It is a step of faith for which we assuredly, and repeatedly, will be challenged by the great enemy of God, the evil one, the devil. Jesus not only modeled how we will be tempted, he also modeled how we can overcome the tempter:  “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:10). When we rely on the Word of God as our rule and guide through life, we too will inherit God’s care: Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus (Matthew 4:11).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.