Last Sunday morning, we studied the devil’s temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4. We learned the Holy Spirit actually led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. These days of testing for Jesus were God’s plan for Him. They ‘load tested’ Him and proved Him to be fully capable of accomplishing His mission.
Testing is always challenging. We humans prefer ease. But we learned that God sanctifies us through ‘dis-ease’. We like to sail along on smooth seas, but this rarely grows us spiritually. But rough seas put us on our knees. ‘Dis-ease’ moves us to dependence upon God. What ‘dis-ease’ has God allowed to further your spiritual growth? Sometimes ‘dis-ease’ is a literal disease. When our bodies fail or become injured or ill, we usually humble ourselves and pray. When we suffer, we ask others to pray for us. When we grieve, we draw near to Christ for comfort.
Please pray for our brothers and sisters whom you know to be in a place of ‘dis-ease’ presently. Obviously, pray for God to relieve their hardship. But also pray for their growing Christlikeness through their time of ‘dis-ease’.
God is always working for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28-30).
Cecil Sanders