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Matthew 4:1-3
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

It was after 40 days of fasting, when Jesus was REALLY hungry that the enemy came to tempt Him.

We seem to feel as if the hard stuff we go through when we’re tired is unfair. And it is. But unfair or not, that is often the time when the enemy comes to temp us and to lie to us. He doesn’t wait for us to be strong so that we might resist Him. He often times waits for us to be weak so that we won’t want to fight.

Oddly enough, that’s also the time that Jesus likes to shine.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

It’s when things are hard, when I feel weak, when I’m tired, when I’m wounded, that the enemy will come and offer me a way out. Which usually has to do with me choosing myself and taking care of myself.

But it’s also those times of difficult hardships that Jesus offers His way out. Which is Him. In our weaknesses, when either by way of attack or just my own selfishness, I would want to choose myself, my way, on my strength, that God offers His way, Himself, and His strength.

The times of fatigue, stress, and anguish, feel like low points to us. But I think they are often times the major action times and turning points in our lives. And if we choose right, they become the high points.

So when stuff gets hard, will you choose you? Will you trust your strength? Your plans? Your comfort?

Or when you are weak, will you allow God to show you just how strong He really is, how good His plans really are, and how complete His comfort really is?

Hard times show up either way. And when they do, you will find yourself one choice away from those times of weakness becoming stories of victory, or defeat.

Which way will you go?

The things that most people are curious about when it comes to God, have to do with the stuff that we do. “What do I have to do to be saved?”, “How much do I have to be at church?”, “Is that really a sin?”, “But is it a big deal sin, or a little unimportant sin?”. 

“Who am I allowed to hang out with?”, “What am I allowed to do for fun?”, “How much am I supposed to pray?”, “How much am I supposed to read my bible?”, “Is it ok to wait to forgive someone until I feel like it?”, “Are there clothes I’m supposed to wear, or a certain hairstyle?”

It’s like the only way we know how to define stuff is by what we do. And while the stuff we do is important, when we focus on that alone, it’s backwards. Because to God, it’s not so much about the things we do. It’s about who we really are.

The things we do are just a symptom of what is living in our hearts.

Luke 6:45

45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

I can tell what’s in my heart by what I do.

But as we’re looking at that, it’s important to not get consumed by the symptom. If I’m sick, and I only treat the symptoms, I may be more comfortable, but I’m not treating the sickness. Tylenol doesn’t heal, it only covers up the sickness so that I don’t notice it as much.

If I want to heal I need real medicine, some sort of antibiotic or an antiviral. Those things attack the sickness, and once the sickness is dealt with, the symptoms disappear.

It’s no different with our hearts. If we’re only focused on the things we do, and that’s our only focus, it’s gonna take forever to change the truth of who we are inside. And the heart issues that need to be dealt with will get forgotten as we only focus on the symptoms that can’t go away until the sickness in our hearts is revealed and handed over to Jesus for Him to heal.

God is after our hearts. And the only Healer capable of dealing with what’s in our hearts is Jesus. He doesn’t need us to just try and look the part of one of His followers. He doesn’t need us to do things to earn His favor. He just wants us to hold our hearts open to Him, so that He can heal them and set them free.

The rest of it will follow if we can just let Jesus clean up our hearts. 

2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12
10…They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

It really is all about free will. God is willing to show us the truth. He wants us to get it! He’s provided countless ways for us to access it and learn it. But when we reject it, we’re rejecting Him.

When we refuse to let our hearts be changed, it’s like with Pharaoh when God hardened his heart. There comes a point when we should have gotten it, and if we hit that point and our stubborn rebellion gets in the way, God gives us over to the desire of our heart –which is always about serving ourselves.

And serving ourselves is really what’s at the core of sin anyway. Rebelling against anything that gets in the way of what we want. Sin always does the opposite of what we think. We think we’re taking care of ourselves, but really we’re just choosing our own destruction…

Father, I don’t want to refuse the truth. I don’t even want to begrudgingly follow it. Change my heart God so that I love the truth. Your truth. Change me. I love You.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.