“And after fasting forty days and nights, he was hungry.” Matthew 4:2
Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes in Christendom is that of confusing the life of sanctification with the life of ease. Due to our ignorance of Scripture we’re duped by our itching ears into believing Satan’s lie that God has abandoned us when circumstances bring us low. We forget, or were never taught, that the goal of Christian life is faith and that this faith conforms us to the image of God’s Son. Our goal is to know, enjoy and glorify God in all things. Regrettably, we often repeat the Psalm, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” but don’t bother to meditate upon it.
You will be in that valley. You will cross the wilderness. You must.
It was the Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness. It was God who called Abraham away from the land of his father and then there was trials and famine. It was the Lord who anointed David King and then he was banished from his land, living in caves. It was the Lord who meant for good the betrayal of Joseph, his descent into slavery, and then even his imprisonment. The blessing of salvation by faith alone, grace alone, through Christ alone is never alone with ease. Trails will come and it’s exactly these trials that mold us into the living poetry that is Lord’s true men and women. It’s a foolish, foolish error to equate trials and frustrations with lack of progress. Consequences of sin and unbelief are warning shots of greater judgment. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about trials that come to the Christian through their walk in the Spirit.
Jesus went to the wilderness because trusting the Father was deemed by Him as the essential part of His life rather than material wealth and comfort. No success coach teaches that we should go to that wilderness. The world preaches the thrones without the testing. In so doing, they preach the gospel of success rather than the true gospel of faith. This isn’t to suggest we should be flippant about our trials and sufferings to the point of seeking them out. On the contrary, anyone who desires to live a Godly life will suffer. The whole point of trials is that they come to us in the normal pattern of our living faithful lives. God chooses them and sanctifies us through them. This is why and how Jesus could go to the place of testing without losing His way.
Paul writes in Romans 5:3 that we should literally rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces endurance, which then yields character and hope. Later we read that our present sufferings aren’t worth being compared to the great and inestimable glories that await us when we’re united with Christ (Romans 8:18). Peter reminds us that if we’re reviled for the name of Christ that we’re actually blessed (1 Peter 4:14) but also to make sure, lest we get it confused, that none of us suffers due to sin (1 Peter 4:15). If anyone suffers as a Christian he isn’t to be ashamed or dismayed but to glorify God! James, the half brother of our Lord, even starts his epistle by telling us to “consider it all joy…when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (James 1:2-3).
There are a few things to learn from this that are essential to Christian life.
First, a Christian should never see trials as a complete surprise. To be afraid of struggle in the Christian life is to avoid the growth one is called to in life by God. Many people take to social media to boast about their hard workouts, their physical sacrifices in the gym, their spartan diets, and their life of denial in order to be fit. (It’s all true to some extent, though looking at pictures of fitness athletes who were already genetically blessed with low body fat and the ability to build muscle in the first place, can breed false expectations for the average bloke.) Nevertheless, we see the pattern: denial and discipline lead to freedom. To be fit, one must work for it. It’s the same for Christian life, for the development of spiritual muscle. A flabby Christian is one who does’t go to the gym, who skips leg day and all that, by neglecting to apply the Word to his/her life. A good Christian who doesn’t know and seek to apply the Word of God in their life, in every aspect, is as contrary to reality as a great athlete who never goes to the gym.
Second, the apostle Paul recommends exactly these types of disciplines, those of athletic training, as a model of Christian living. “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not one beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).” How much loss can be avoided in our lives by seeing the truth of this and treating ourselves as Christian athletes? How much shame heaped upon the great name of the Lord Jesus Christ can be averted by His children going to the gym each morning – opening their Bibles, praying, seeking out the counsel of Christian leaders, and talking about the Word continually instead of incessantly obsessing about the events of the day? It’s like this, unfit, flabby, weak, with no endurance, that Christians every day climb into the ring against the world, the flesh and the Devil. Is it any wonder we’re smacked around so effortlessly by life that unbelievers rarely find anything markedly different about our lives so as to commend Christ? Oh, how much time, energy and resources the church wastes every year on evangelism because the pews are full of flabby Christians who are conformed in thought, word and deed to the world instead of being transformed by the living Word! Evangelism shouldn’t be so hard unless we aren’t really living for Christ. The greatest power we have in order to stand through the trials – all of them – is the habit of thankfulness! The habit of grumbling and complaining, the cancer of being ungrateful and constantly critical, will eat away at one’s foundation of faith.
Third, when Iron Mike Tyson was in his heyday, he walked to the ring before a fight without a robe. He wore only gloves, trunks and boxing shoes. There was no adornment to prove to the world that he was “the baddest man on the planet.” He was asked during this time if he tried to intimidate his foes before the fight. He seemed to find the question puzzling. “No,” he said, “I intimidate them by hitting them.” You see, Mike had no fear because he was ready. He walked in confidence knowing that his defense was too good and that his enemy would miss him – and when he did – behold, his offensive firepower would overwhelm him and that would be that. It’s like this that we should see ourselves when we’ve put on the whole armor of God! It’s not our armor (but God’s gifts to us lest we boast), nor are we ever safe without it. Like Tyson submitted to the discipline that made him, indeed, transformed him into Iron Mike, we’re more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) through Him and through that great and unassailable armor. Put it on! It requires discipline and commitment, yes, but we must do it.
Finally, we know that sin will strip of this armor and we’ll walk to the ring lonely and afraid. Sin always brings shame, so we must know the cross, go to the cross, bow down there and weep. Then, when we rise again to our feet, we put that armor on and go…we go back to our home, to our work, to wherever God has placed us. There it is that we will live as Christian soldiers, unafraid of calamity and trial because the world’s wisdom is foolishness and because no trial can ultimately destroy us. Nothing can snatch us from the hand of God nor separate us from His love. Why do we not see this more often? Why hasn’t the church turned out thousands upon thousands of bold Christian soldiers, full of joy and wisdom, shining like radiant and lustrous lights in a sin-darkened world? Because Christians are weakened by sin and unbelief in the promises of God. We cower before the world’s wisdom and are ashamed of the gospel. And we’re more afraid of offending men than God. And we prize the comforts of life more than the blessing of God. Oh, that such fainthearted and shrinking souls would realize their woeful predicament and cast aside the irrationality of their worldly fears. Who is it that knows God, His awesome power and unsurpassed love, His absolute rule and authority, and then dares to fear the world or dabble in sin?
With all this said, let’s rise up to face the world. Free from our bondage to sin we should each day walk outside and look to the world and say, “do your worst…for the love of God rests upon me.” This is the proper attitude that drives out fearful living. John Flavel once wrote:
“It was not persecutions and prisons – but worldliness and prosperity, which poisoned the church! The power of godliness did never thrive better than in affliction, and was never less thriving than in times of greatest prosperity! When we are left as a poor and afflicted people, then we learn to trust in the name of the Lord.”
Yes! We look always and forever to our great and undefeated champion, Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls, the Lord of our lives, our indomitable God, and hear Him say, “In this world you will have tribulation, but take courage, for I have overcome the world. (John 16:33).
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