Don’t fall for it.

1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

 

Let’s be honest… Matthew 3: 13-17 is a pretty awesome moment for Jesus.  He gets baptized, the voice of God literally comes from heaven saying “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (seriously, who gets that??), and the ministry He’d been waiting all this time to start, finally begins.   It’s a “mountain top moment” if I ever saw one.  But it’s what happened next that recently sunk into my spirit.  Before I get to that….

Do you ever feel that there are some lessons we are just incapable of learning?  A super obvious one is over eating.  Come on, we should know by now that we’ll end up sitting around feeling bloated, while our bodies process the calories we spent an hour trying to run off that morning from the day before.  But we can’t seem to remember from one meal to the next.

True confession, it’s 10:42 on Friday night and I’m sitting here sick from too much of my favorite French salad, Steve’s Paella, and homemade sugar cookies.  Did I really need 3 helpings of Paella or 5 cookies?  I mean, really, after 36 years of this, you’d think I’d know when enough is exactly enough. But, nope, and I’m pretty sure I’ll eat too much dinner again tomorrow night (7 courses are planned and purchased, after all….).

But we all do this.  There are many things in our lives that we know  “A + B = C”, yet the “C” somehow shocks us every time – every day, even.  Why is that?

We’ve been duped.  Our brains are so filled with costly emotions for things like gratification or justification that we walk around making the same mistakes over and over and don’t even have the wherewithal to see a pattern for what it really is.

But there was an important pattern established for us in Matthew 3 and 4.   And if we can learn to avoid its trap, our lives will be greater, more purposeful, more productive, more adventurous and more PEACEFUL all at the same time.

Christ had an encounter with God (quite literally) at that baptism and the very next thing that happens…

Satan.

Jesus heads into the dessert to pray and prepare for this huge beginning — and he encounters temptation.   As a kid, I always saw this played out with Satan literally sitting beside Christ having a discussion with him.  But Satan came to Jesus the same way he comes to us — entering our thoughts and trying to tear us down.  Jesus wasn’t tempted by his own inadequacies (for he had none), but by the schemes of Satan to confuse and destroy.

And therein lies the pattern.  What happens directly after an awesome time of worship?  Or the quiet times where we feel like we’ve found an answer to something we’ve been desperate to hear?  Or when we’ve finally found the conviction to do something big or stretching?  Or after ANYTHING that brings us to a place where we are encouraged, purposeful, or convicted?

If Satan was bold enough to attack Jesus right after his “mountain top experience” you can be sure he’ll attack you.  And he’ll bring with him:

DOUBT.

REGRET.

DISTRACTION.

& FEAR.

We need to Expect it.  Prepare for it.  And Know how not to FALL for it.

Overeating = feeling terrible.  An encounter with God = a visit from the enemy.

It’s that simple, yet we are surprised almost every time.   And, what’s worse, so often, we let it beat us.

Don’t let Satan steal your joy, your peace, your conviction.   You’re too smart for that.   And when it comes, rest assured you are on the right path, because Satan would’t waste his time with you otherwise.