Relatable Jesus
Falling In love with Jesus
I want us to look in to the amazing qualities that Jesus showed us in his time here, dive into the things we are striving as Christians to be like him in.. One of the things that made me fall in love with God is the Choice to come to earth, and experience life as we do. The idea that he loves us so much that he came here and chose to die for us, but even more than that chose to go thru so many of the battles that we face on a daily basis so that when we come to him with this same situations he isn’t just speaking to us as an all knowing creator. he is there for us as someone who came and experienced the worst versions of the things we all go thru on a daily basis.
We will begin this series with the FIRST Characteristic of Jesus I want to talk about…
Self control
In Matthew 4 we learn that after Jesus is baptized he goes into the desert and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. After this at his most vulnerable, starving, thirsty, and i can only imagine exhausted time.. he is then presented with satan showing up.. to tempt him. Which from my experience is his favorite time to show up. When you are beaten down, when you are tired. When you feel like there is no hope. That’s when he shows up. Even more so he doesn’t always show up with lies and terrible evil sounding things. Sometimes he shows up in these moments with little truths spun in deceptive form. In verse 3 he tells Jesus that IF Jesus is the Son of man to turn the stones to become loaves of bread. To which Jesus responds in verse 4 “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that come from the mouth of God” Imagine the self control it takes to not make food appear when you haven’t eaten in 40 days. The need for food to survive and not having it for that long and still maintaining the self control to say no, and stick to what you came here to teach and do. He loved you enough to say no at that moment. I’m just re falling in love with him just typing this. Not only is that fact true that he said no because of how much he loves us, it also gives us something to relate to. We walk thru life with temptations that are so easily accessible to choose sin, and I can say from personal experience that I’ve that they seem so small in comparison to Starving in a desert and still saying no to food. We are out with friends deciding to get drunk with them. We are sitting in front of a phone screen choosing purity or pornography. We are sitting in conversations deciding to lie and gossip like the people around us. Temptations come in so many forms, but here Jesus is telling us. Hey I’ve been there I know it’s hard, but trust me the way to life is with me. This isn’t the only temptation Satan threw at Jesus, he also tried to lure him with a spin on the written word itself, telling Jesus to throw himself off the temple if he was truly the Son of God and that the angels would save him. He then offered him ALL the kingdoms of the world and all their glory, if he fell down and worshiped him. All to which Jesus responded with the WRITTEN word of God, to essentially and literally tell Satan to buzz off.
So many moments Jesus had the chance to succumb to temptation and not follow through with his mission to save us.. and every time he chose us. That is some self control I’m eternally grateful for, and it fuels me in my own life to do the same. Even. Better than just giving us a moment to relate to him in a struggle, he also gives us the exact way to avoid falling into the temptations…
The Word of God.. and in moments that I hear that little chatter of Satan in my ear;
“It’s just once it’s no big deal”
“The Bible says none of us are perfect, this is just my one thing”
“It’s not THAT bad I’m not hurting anyone else”
“I’ve already messed up enough, why even try to change now”
I go to my source. I read the words my Lord and savior left me to get through these moments.. and I align myself back in His will. You would be surprised how quickly reading just a couple of verses in a moment of discomfort can instantly change your direction. Most importantly it’s NEVER TOO LATE to let Jesus change your life.