The Selfless Way of Christ
Temptation: The Lure of Upward Mobility
The Temptation to Be Relevant
Pages 47-53
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Mark 1:12 (NIV) At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Matthew 4:1-4 (NIV) Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Luke 4:1-4 (NIV) Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
“The Holy Spirit leads us on the downward way, not to cause us to suffer or to subject us to pain and humiliation, but rather to help us to see God present in the midst of our struggles.”
What is your response to this statement?
“The gospels depict Jesus on the eve of his death making clear to his disciples that their ministry is possible only because they no longer belong to the world and its ways.”
What does it mean to “no longer belong to the world and its ways?”
What things might we have to give up today in order for this to be true of us?
“In a variety of ways we are made to believe that we are what we produce. This leads to a preoccupation with products, visible results, tangible goods, and progress.”
Have you ever measured yourself by what you can produce?
“To be a Christian who is willing to travel with Christ on his downward road requires being willing to detach oneself constantly from any need to be relevant, and to trust ever more deeply the Word of God. Thus, we do not resist the temptation to be relevant by doing irrelevant things but by clinging to the Word of God who is the source of all relevancy.”
What is your response to this statement? Do you agree? In the Christian culture the phrase “being relevant” is thrown around a lot as something to pursue and be. What do you make of that? Is he addressing that or is that a different thing?
EXTRA READING:
“Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Christ grants to His friends, is that of self-conquest and of willingly bearing sufferings, injuries and reproaches and discomforts for the love of Christ. If we shall bear all these things patiently and with cheerfulness, thinking on the suffering of Christ the blessed, which we ought to bear patiently for His love, in this is perfect joy.”
- Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226)