[Please do read the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]
After that exhilarating experience of being anointed by the Holy Spirit, and his Identity and Purpose being validated by the very voice of God, Jesus is “sent” by this same Spirit…
If I had to play the game, “Now Complete the Story”, I would have said, “To do something big and fantastic for God.” Instead the Spirit “at once” sent Jesus out into the wilderness! There are no people in the wilderness to do things “fantastic for God.” And in the 40 long and lonely days there was only Satan doing what only he does best – tempt. There were wild animals, of course, and Matthew tells us (4:11) that the angels attended to him only in the end. Jesus shows us through his own life that God desires humility, surrender and obedience more than anything else. That’s true devotion, not running around “doing things for God.” That comes later, much later. And even then it really is “God doing things through us.” And in that obedience even Jesus learned that the only way to overcome temptation is – true devotion to God!
Prayer: Gracious God, forgive me for believing that all you want of me is to be your servant, doing things for you. You really want me to give more and more of myself to you, until there is nothing left in me but You. I try and battle temptation, but it is so often on my own – and I lose. Remind me, dear Lord, that emptying myself to you doesn’t make me weaker, but actually stronger. It is because only then You fill me up. Fill me up, Lord Jesus, I give myself to you. Amen.
