Time is not really spent. It is invested in a future we
cannot see. The Bible speaks of time and seasons.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (Msg)
1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on earth...
Your
days are ruled by the clock. The choices that you make
with each tick of the clock will shape your future. Time can sometimes feel unimportant. Struggling with
the mundane routines of life can be seen as a “waste of time.” Maybe you don't feel like you're experiencing the life you dreamed of. You operate in survival mode instead of passionately living.
Anonymous. Forgotten. Hidden. Have you ever felt this way? Once you had a
position or title – in your home, neighborhood, crew, family, job, etc.
Now you might be unimportant and unconsidered. Invisible.
Concealed for months, years, or decades, you might think that your potential is in hibernation like a bear in
winter. And as time passes, you wonder if Spring will ever awaken it again.
All of us are acquainted with chapters in life when our
visible fruitfulness is pruned back and our strengths and abilities are
unnoticed by the watching world.
God Himself sees you. Here, today, He sees each and every
one of you. God appreciates the visible and invisible equally – He values you
no more than He values me. God never wastes anyone’s time.
Right now, we can only see the tip of the iceberg of who you
are. But did you know that arctic
scientists tell us that only 1/8 to 1/10 of an iceberg is actually visible? As
much as 90% is submerged in the UNSEEN. Because of their enormous masses,
icebergs are virtually indestructible.
10% visible + 90% unseen = an indestructible life.
The most influential life in all of history reflected the
iceberg equation. 90% of Jesus’ life on earth was spent in obscurity. 10% of
His earthly life was spent in the public eye. All of His life was, and is,
indestructible.
Jesus’ first three decades were mostly unrecorded, but they
were not uneventful. During these 29 invisible years Jesus submitted to a
delayed destiny. A God-sized mission pulsed in His heart, but He wasn’t free to
proclaim it or pursue it. Onlookers only saw the tip of the iceberg of who
Jesus truly was. Yet indestructible greatness was growing within Him during
this time.
John 7:40-42
40 On hearing
his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others
said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the
Christ come from Galilee ? 42 Does not the Scripture say that the
Christ will come from David’s family[a] and from Bethlehem
Matthew 13:54-57
54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their
synagogue, and they were amazed.“Where did this man get this wisdom and
these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and
aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get
all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him.
What good thing can come out of Brea, Covina, San Dimas, Whittier, etc? A lot. I have seen
it.
When we state our desire to be more like Jesus, we are not
referring to Jesus’ hidden years right? We are not saying, “I want to live 90%
of my life in obscurity!”?
- Our desire to be like Jesus cannot include an exemption clause. Jesus’ character and authority were built over TIME, a time largely unrecorded and uneventful.
Jesus appears to have walked unstressed and unhurried. His
peaceful pace seems to imply that He measured Himself by whom He was following
and how closely they walked together.
- God was Jesus’ primary pursuit.
- Just like Jesus, when God calls your soul simultaneously to greatness and obscurity, the fruit – if you WAIT for it – can change the world.
Imagine a 2-story house. It’s beautiful from the
outside. But the beauty of the exterior is only possible if the interior is
strong. The unglamorous guts of the house are what give it strength to build on
and survive. All of the plumbing, duct work, and support beams are “hidden”. If
the “unseen” is carefully attended to, the visible can expand on a trustworthy
foundation.
Though unpopular, your TIME in this season does not need to be
unproductive. Within the walls of your workplace, home, school and church, God houses the guts of a fruitful future. Here,
in the poorly lit crawl space of life, God wants to build within you a
sturdy support system for your soul. If you do not respect His
craftsmanship in this “hidden season” all that is visible in your life
will rest on a fragile foundation, and eventually you’ll experience
collapse.Jesus’
hidden years established a foundation in His life. He resisted rushing and
took the TIME to live them well.
When Jesus entered the wilderness each layer of temptation
would rest on its predecessor (like the second floor of a house rests on the
first floor) with double or triple the full
weight bearing down on Jesus' hidden
foundation. His foundation was secure, so no amount of temptation on the
planet could crush Him.
Every choice we make is an investment into a future we
cannot see.
II. TEMPTATION
And now comes the major understatement of the Bible…
Matthew 4:2
2 After fasting forty days and forty
nights, he was hungry.
In Jesus’ state of hunger,
Matthew 4:3-4
3 The tempter came to him
and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these
stones to become bread.”4 Jesus
answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live
on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Lures are tempting, attractive baits used to trap someone or
something. Think of Satan’s lures as tasty treats offered on a camouflaged
hook.
Satan did not care any more about Jesus having a piece of
bread than He did about Eve having a piece of fruit. He still doesn’t care
whether we crave food, money, sex or control. He focuses on the HOOK,
and whatever fleeting pleasure we experience is worth it from his perspective
as long as in the end he gets the hook into us.
In this layer of temptation, Jesus was hungry, and what
Satan basically said was, “What are you waiting for? Do something about it!
Satisfy your need now!” Satan didn’t suggest that Jesus steal food – that would have
broken one of God’s commandments. But eating? Food in itself isn’t sinful. And
here is where Satan’s lures can be deceptive. This wasn’t about WHAT Jesus ate,
as much as it was about WHEN Jesus would eat. Would Jesus obey God even when
obedience required delayed satisfaction of a basic human need?
- Satan’s most effective lure is: immediate gratification. Feel familiar? In our day, we are unapologetically addicted to the immediate – why should we wait when it is within or power not to?
- Which is EXACTLY the question Satan posed before Jesus.
Don’t fall prey to the
lie of just one. We disconnect the moment of temptation from all other
moments because we rationalize that just
this once….
- You give in. Pleasure can anesthetize us against that taste temporarily, but when it wears off, the pain and shame reconnect you with reality.
- Jesus did NOT succumb to the hook or the lie of just one. Nor did He trust His emotions to navigate Himself through Satan’s temptings.
- In the place of temptation, Jesus threw out a hook of His own – an ANCHOR that caught in something immovable – the Word of God.
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.’”
God’s Word is not merely our anchor in temptation, it is the
anchor of our existence.
When tempted in the layer of appetite, of something you
crave, it may sincerely feel as though we will die if our cravings are not
satisfied.Something
does die when we re-position our feelings behind God’s truth and refuse to
let appetite rule: OURSELVES.
Jesus wasn’t in DENIAL about how He felt (He wasn’t chanting
“I’m not hungry!”) – but internally what He was saying was, “There is something
I need more than food: my life is sustained by God’s Word”)
Victory wasn’t on hold waiting for Jesus’ feelings of hunger
to disappear. Instead, victory was waiting for Jesus to reposition His felt
appetite behind God’s eternal will.
Remember that feelings were designed to FOLLOW not to LEAD.
So when God’s will and word take the drivers seat in our lives, our feelings
and desires are free to follow.
Today’s decisions foreshadow tomorrow’s challenges and
reflect yesterday’s choices. Follow Jesus’ example – lean into God during the
barren seasons of your life. The result will prayerfully be an indestructible life.
xoxo,
Jenny
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