Sunday December 10, 2006 | Greg Boyd
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. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
We are constantly tempted to focus our time and energy meeting the expectations of other people instead of meeting God's expectations for our lives. This is an extremely strong temptation! Even Jesus, as Messiah, was expected by others to act and be a certain way. But God has given every one of us a unique identity to receive. The goal of our Christian life is to grow into and manifest this God-given identity, so that we can reflect His love to others.
We are constantly tempted to focus our time and energy meeting the expectations of other people instead of meeting God’s expectations for our lives. This is an extremely strong temptation! Even Jesus, as Messiah, was expected by others to act and be a certain way. But God has given every one of us a unique identity to receive. The goal of our Christian life is to grow into and manifest this God-given identity, so that we can reflect His love to others.
In Christ, we have an identity and purpose. But we have also inherited an identity based upon our past, our culture, and other social factors. Our inherited identity tells us what the world expects us to be. This often stands in stark contrast with the identity God has given us. The challenge of our everyday life is to continue to grow out of the lies of our inherited identity so that we are able to live more fully in our God-given identity.
In order to say “yes” to this new reality, we must be willing to embrace change. We must be willing to step out of the comfort zone of familiar attitudes and die to our own self-image. This will not be easy because we have a supernatural enemy, Satan, who wants us to remain stuck in our old identity. But as we find the courage to let go, and follow God’s leading and guidance, we will begin to move into the life that God has for us.
We must also be willing to endure the pain of growth in order to experience the joyful life God has set before us to live. Although we risk rejection and the judgment of others, we
clearly see in the life and resurrection of Christ that it is worth it. The people in Christ’s time expected a Messiah who would use power and authority to overthrow the Roman government and establish a new rule. Instead, Jesus followed God’s call on his life, loved his enemies, and was crucified by those enemies for the salvation of all people. As we live in Christ, we can resist the temptations to stay immature and embrace our God-given identity. It is through Christ that we can experience the abundant life God has for us.