Victory through Sacrifice
This week we end the season of Lent, as we prepare to celebrate the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many of us will also end our sacrificial fasts from favorite foods or other substances or activities that we have denied ourselves for 40 days (more or less?). Our fasts commemorate Jesus' 40-day fast from food during his difficult time in the wilderness prior to beginning his earthly ministry. Our hope is to have grown closer to God, as he did, and gained a deeper appreciation of Christ's life, the lessons he taught us and the painful sacrifice he made to gain our eternal salvation through redemption of our sins.
Like Jesus, we who fasted during this Lenten season may have wrestled with temptation to surrender and return to whatever carnal delights we had chosen to sacrifice. From our beginnings in the Garden of Eden, Satan has lurked in our midst trying to tempt us to fail in our commitments to God and to turn against the creator and sustainer of our lives. He challenged Jesus in the same way in the wilderness and at other times, no doubt.
As Rev. Brian W. Jackson said in "Tempted on Every Hand," his sermon on the first Sunday of Lent, "It is when we seek a closer walk with the Lord...and become more committed to God that we are most tempted." As our pastor explained, yielding to the temptation to sin distorts our self-image as children of God and causes us fear and shame, just as it did to Adam and Eve. Through temptation Satan seeks to "kill, steal and destroy" our relationship with, and our blessings from, our loving, almighty God.
We can only hope that Christ's powerful example of faithful forbearance against Satan and our own prayers for help from the Holy Spirit will strengthen us spiritually and aid us in resisting every temptation that would rob us of eternal life with God.
So how has it been with your soul during this season of Lent. Have you faced temptations? Did you resist and overcome them or surrender to them? What gave you strength and/or what caused you weakness? What advice can you offer to others from your knowledge of and experience with resisting temptation. Please share your comments here for the edification of us all. Thanks!
--John W. Coleman Jr.
Like Jesus, we who fasted during this Lenten season may have wrestled with temptation to surrender and return to whatever carnal delights we had chosen to sacrifice. From our beginnings in the Garden of Eden, Satan has lurked in our midst trying to tempt us to fail in our commitments to God and to turn against the creator and sustainer of our lives. He challenged Jesus in the same way in the wilderness and at other times, no doubt.
As Rev. Brian W. Jackson said in "Tempted on Every Hand," his sermon on the first Sunday of Lent, "It is when we seek a closer walk with the Lord...and become more committed to God that we are most tempted." As our pastor explained, yielding to the temptation to sin distorts our self-image as children of God and causes us fear and shame, just as it did to Adam and Eve. Through temptation Satan seeks to "kill, steal and destroy" our relationship with, and our blessings from, our loving, almighty God.
We can only hope that Christ's powerful example of faithful forbearance against Satan and our own prayers for help from the Holy Spirit will strengthen us spiritually and aid us in resisting every temptation that would rob us of eternal life with God.
So how has it been with your soul during this season of Lent. Have you faced temptations? Did you resist and overcome them or surrender to them? What gave you strength and/or what caused you weakness? What advice can you offer to others from your knowledge of and experience with resisting temptation. Please share your comments here for the edification of us all. Thanks!
--John W. Coleman Jr.
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