Positive Thoughts

It’s easy to forget that Jesus was fully human. We can see that he was fully God because of the miracles he performed. We tend to talk about Jesus as if he were emotionless, disciplined, serious, and authoritative. We remove his humanity when we do this and end up distancing ourselves from him. But Jesus was fully human. He got tired and needed to sleep. He laughed with his friends. He got hungry and needed to eat. He enjoyed spending time with people. He got dirty and needed to bathe. We even forget that he was an infant, a toddler, a kid, a teenager. There was no part of humanity that he didn’t experience. And that includes temptation. It’s hard to imagine Jesus being tempted, because we often equate temptation with sin. We often hide our temptation from others because we are ashamed of what tempts us; but temptation is not sin.  Most of the world would define temptation as something that goes against a personal conviction. They may go to a party and say that the dessert table is “so tempting” because they’re on a diet. But, biblical temptation is when we are presented with an enticing opportunity to go against God’s design. For it to be true temptation, it has to be enticing—something that claims to satisfy a desire in our hearts. If it’s just an opportunity to disobey God, but it doesn’t intrigue you at all or offer satisfaction of a desire, then it’s not temptation. If we know that Jesus was fully human and experienced all the same temptations that we do, we can be comforted. Jesus experienced the full range of human emotion and temptation, and yet, he was without guilt and shame because he never gave in to temptation. We, too, can live without guilt and shame—not because we are sinless—but because the sinless savior died to give us forgiveness. When we are tempted, we can go to a Savior that offers true empathy and compassion because he knows what it’s like. Reflection/Discussion Question: How does it feel to know that Jesus was fully human and was tempted just as you are?

How much water have you drank today? Some of you got immediately thirsty upon reading that question. It is easy to remember to drink water when you’re working outside in the middle of the summer or just got done with an intense workout. It’s a lot harder to remember to drink water when you’re going about a busy day and never recognize your thirst. Prayer can be similar for many of us. It’s easy to pray when we feel a need for God, but it’s a lot more difficult to remember to pray when we are going about our busy day, forgetting our need. We know that we are supposed to pray continually, and we hear that prayer is powerful, but we don’t really believe it. If we truly believed that prayer was powerful, we would pray all of the time about everything. Instead, we pray when it’s convenient, when we’re in need, or when we want something. The rest of the time, we rely on our own actions and abilities. The truth is, we are in a spiritual battle that doesn’t rest. Often, we don’t see things as a spiritual battle; we just see the flooded bathroom and broken dishwasher as an expensive inconvenience that happened to interrupt your fundraising for a mission trip. We see the addict as being a product of his choices. We see the bully as a result of bad parenting. We see troublesome laws as a result of corrupt government. Instead of praying, we look to worldly solutions to fight a spiritual battle, but the world around is isn’t split into “spiritual” and “unspiritual”. Everything is a manifestation of the spiritual battle around us. And still, we put down our weapon of prayer and pick up weapons of this world in the hopes of winning the battle. We have access to the Creator of the Universe. We have access to all wisdom, power, and strength—the very strength that raised Christ from the dead. But instead we’d rather rely on ourselves and pray when it’s convenient or necessary. If we knew the true power of prayer, it would change the way we lived. Reflection/Discussion Questions: What do you believe about prayer? Does your prayer life back up your beliefs?