Topic: Temptation

Temptation is something we all have to deal with, and Jesus shows the way in dealing with it.

Perhaps amidst the increasingly depressing state of the world, Jesus is calling us to learn the path of faithfulness from those who never win.

Whether or not you can accept the idea of a personal devil, there are forces of evil in the world that are bigger and more powerful than our own inner flaws, but conscious and united, we are stronger still.

The temptations faced by Jesus reveal common patterns in the demonic temptations that we face in our own lives.

Lent calls us to faithfulness to God and we need to assess the direction of our journey, our call to ministry and also to meet our own demons.

Jesus resisted the temptation to force his will on the world, and he pioneered a pathway for us to similarly refuse the exploitation of power.

Jesus’s quest for reconciliation is far wider and more discomfortingly radical than our tendency to jump on the bandwagon of popular justice causes.

God invites us to live joyously, boldly and freely in the midst of mystery, but we are frequently tempted to grasp for something more tangible and certain.

Lent is a recurring reminder of the fragility of our discipleship in the face of tempting shortcuts and instant gratifications.

Jesus offers us vision of the future which sharply differs from that offered by modern economics, and we need to intentionally nourish that vision.

Whether we think of the devil as a personal being or as a metaphor, our call to put our trust in Jesus to strengthen our resistance to the temptation of expedient short-cuts is the same.

Lent is a time to walk knowingly into the wilderness, to face the Accuser and the wild beasts that emerge when we live out our identity as God’s children.