Who are You?
April 16, 2024
The strength that counts
November 12, 2018
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" … Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." GENESIS 3:1; MATTHEW 4:1-3
The strength of the spiritual heart trumps that of the physical heart. Eve was physically strong but spiritually weak when the serpent came. Jesus was spiritually strong but physically weak when the devil appeared. Eve succumbed to the allurement to sate her flesh, but Jesus sent the devil scurrying for cover.
The world lives by the creed of the survival of the physical fittest. In the Kingdom of God, the confidence is that His power in us is “perfected in weakness.” (2 CORINTHIANS 12:9) Paul discovered that “when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 CORINTHIANS 12:10)
This is not a call to gaunt asceticism. It’s not a mandate to dress in hair shirts, nor lash the body with a whip. To the contrary, we are stewards of our physical health and have a mandate to take care of our bodies. In the ultimate struggle it’s not physical strength that wins, but spiritual power.
TODAY’S FOCUS
Make sure there is time daily to exercise your spiritual heart.
