Listen For The Flutter Of Angel Wings!

February 4, 2016

Listen For The Flutter Of Angel Wings! 

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted there by the devil.

Matthew 4:1

We must never lose sight of this fact; Jesus was fully human, in every respect. Jesus experienced our entire range of human emotions. Theologically, Jesus’ humanity is essential to God’s plan of redemption. As a practical matter, Jesus’ humanity is essential for the survival of his followers: “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Hebrews 2:18).

From God’s perspective, testing and temptation are indispensable building blocks for our faith. Through testing and temptation we are able to choose our true priorities for life, and harden our resolve to remain steadfast to fulfilling God’s way for our life, as opposed to joining Frank Sinatra and singing a chorus of, My Way: “I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way.”  

Yes, God does test us. He doesn’t tempt us, the evil one does that, but God allows it for us, just as He did for Jesus. When we look at the wilderness experience of Jesus, we learn that Jesus was confronted with options. He could choose between relying of God’s Word and God’s way, or he could chose more expedient ways with abundant gratification. The ways of the tempter are always short cuts to our intended destination. God’s ways require patience, and trust that He will prevail, even when we can see no reason to hold that position. That’s why Saint Paul included in his attributes of faith this maxim: “For we live by believing and not by seeing” (2 Corinthians 5:7). The writer of Hebrews extolled this same virtue of faith: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1).

It was my custom, when presiding at funeral services, to remind the congregation that death does not have the last word! Jesus has the last word, and his word teaches us that eternal life is life uninterrupted by death! In the same way, our testing and temptations do not have the last word. When Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness was complete, we learn “Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus” (Matthew 4:11).

Our take-a-way for today is two very compelling truths. First, unlike Jesus, we are not alone during our time of testing: “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Hebrews 2:18 Emphasis mine). Secondly, when our time of testing is complete, we’ll listen for the flutter of angel wings!  

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, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.