Matthew 4:1 (NIV) ..."Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert ..."
I look at four states: Thirst, the mirage, the 'living water', and drunkenness.
When Jesus says He will give the Living Water, many say He is referring to the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was led into the desert, He thirsted. He was tempted like we all are. For us, it appears often like a mirage ...because we don't see things the way God does. A false image of something that isn't true, and will never truly satisfy ...is what we often face when we are misled.
We all thirst ...though not for the same things. We all need the Living Water, and to look elsewhere to fulfill our needs, is to succumb to some form of deception ...or it could be pride.
God said, "This is My Son, with whom I am well pleased." Let me make it clear that we are saying a good thing when we tell our children we are proud of them. We should also be proud of our soldiers who go in harm's way to protect our country and the freedoms we cherish. That kind of pride is showing we are 'well pleased'.
There are two other types of pride that I'm going to mention that are not good. And they both involve an unwillingness to accept the standing we have in this life. There are those who don't want to admit that they don't have something ...and some of them will not even accept charity, for fear that it will be revealed that they are in need. For some reason or another, they reject the provision. The other pride may have began this way, envying or lusting for something that they didn't have, but they now either have the ambition or have found the means to chance get what they've been pining away for. And many times they will go to great lengths to keep it.
Commitment is when something has taken the top spot in our life ...and the thought of achieving it or maintaining it, rather rules our life. This can be a good thing, though if it misleads us ...it can be considered 'drunkenness'. Yet, there are those who don't let anything rule their lives ...they aim to rule the lives of others. But, it could be said that in that case, that person's thirst is for taking advantage of others for his own advancement and personal ambitions.
There is healthy ambition and unhealthy ambition. Healthy ambition is in the form of self-improvement. And many businesses that grow ...experience successfulness, by making profits. Thankfully, those profits often enable them to hire more people and provide better services ...benefiting many.
Yet, some people don't have healthy ambition ...they just want to have what they don't rightly have the means to attain. They harbor within them a bit of discontentment.
Those who have nearly nothing ...thirst. And when given something to drink, they are content.
What am I driving at ...and where does this lead? It brings us to the root. The root appear to be ...ungratefulness.
A grateful person is thankful for what they have, yet how can they not notice what others have? This is the reality of differences ...and it is not just a 'half empty' or 'half full' observation. It can be a comparison compulsion of wanting what someone else has, or wanting someone to have what you have. It develops the greatest differences in personalities ...between those who want a hand-out, and those who want to be charitable to others. We've all heard that it is better to give than receive. And there are those who appear to have little, yet want to share the greatest of what can be had ...understanding that receiving can be the best for us, if we accept that Jesus 'gave' His life, so we can 'receive' eternal life.
Ungratefulness does not focus on the fact that others have less than us ...it looks at what we don't have. And it seems always to lead to discontentment, that leads to covetousness. And within the Ten Commandments, that tenth one seems to encompass most of how we error in life. The other nine seem rather cut-and-dry ...but, when we travel within the dry desert and barren places of our lives, we are tempted to find our satisfaction in areas other than where God is at the center.
I really don't know precisely what is at the root of it all ...but, I do know that 'all' is all around. We don't have to look any further than ...ourselves. We compete on the world stage, gladly taking the role of bit actors. Some of us think we are the stars, others find our way into the supporting cast, and some of us feel down if we don't get the role we want.
Let's look at the word hypocrite. Hypokrites was a technical term for a stage actor and was not considered an appropriate role for a public figure. In Athens in the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator Demosthenes ridiculed his rival Aeschines who had been a successful actor before taking up politics.
Well, politics exists because government exists ...and Jesus said to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
But, we should also look to God while deciding what governs our lives. And we should not only say that God is our top concern ...we should attempt to live that way.
