My Daily Journal:
I loved the idea of the Holy Spirit as personal trainer. Faith is a muscle. Temptation and testing is nothing but dead weight. Sure, we need to be careful to not drop it on our foot, but facing and overcoming temptation is a tool to building strength when done with the right discipline and trainer.
We were told last week that the Spirit remained with Jesus. The spirit worked with and in Jesus to prepare and strengthen Him for His calling, His mission. His food was to do the will of Him who sent Him. His refuge was in the Spirit. He was training, preparing, growing stronger every hour and minute.
Part of any fighter’s training is time in the ring. A good trainer is a good ring man, with the fighter, in their head, in their corner, coaching, encouraging. The Spirit did this with Jesus. For 40 days and nights They (the Trinity) spent time alone in the wilderness in preparation. As Jesus battled the demands of his human nature and its yearnings to be fed, His spirit grew in strength and fortitude. When Satan saw Jesus at His weakest, He was strong – not in his own human strength but in the power of the word of God. Satan didn’t go in the ring with kid gloves, he went in swinging, but there are no new temptations and nothing as powerful as the Word.
The downside of this analogy is that every time I’ve thought about the Spirit of God this week, I keep picturing Mickey from the Rocky movies.
My Answers:
3.
a.
In the wilderness. Led there by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil
b.
Faith is a muscle, strengthened through proper use. Temptation is not punishment or even that we have done wrong/strayed, it is just dead weight.
4.
a.
Jesus did not add to or take from God’s word. He also trusted it whole-heartedly in full obedience to what it says
b.
D. Satan addressed Eve with a question, Jesus with an accusation
D. Eve relied on her own eyes
D. Eve yielded to temptation and sinned
S. Satan spoke
S. Satan was crafty
S. Satan desired sin
The Notes are Good 