lent

i just listened to rob bell's message about lent. as a church they are celebrating lent as they look forward to the resurrection of Christ at Easter.

the first talk was about the temptation of Christ. when satan comes to Christ he attacks his identity. he says if you really are the Son of God then do this or do that. he puts the question of doubt in the face of Christ. satan does the same with us, are you really a child of God, i saw what you did. are you really adopted by Christ, you are not worhty to be called his. these are the lies i have lived with for my whole life, satan will continue to use them to tempt me. when we know who we are in Christ we can confidently refute his lies. i am working dilegently on being condifent in my identity in him alone.

in our humaness we set up a plans for God, Lord if you do this and this i will give you this and that or do this for you. we say God if you fix this mess and heal these people i will stay or serve you the rest of my life. when God doesn't comply with our requirements we conclude he is not a good God.

sometimes he does comply with our list and we can't accept his blessing. our list was something we thought would never happen and in it not happening we would have freedom to leave, yet in his answers we can't deny the fact he is working and we are called to a place we would rather not be. other times he doesn't answer and we suffer loss, pain, heartache and we equate the suffering again with a God who is not providing and not good. we are wrong. he is providing and he is good he is just working in a way that is far beyond our wildest dreams.