Discernment

During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask what it means to be themselves.

Read Luke 4 recounting Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, when he was “led by the Spirit” and “tempted by the devil.”

The devil’s greatest weapon in tempting Jesus is to quote Scripture to him. The greatest weapon that the exhausted and hungry Jesus has against the devil is to live out Scripture in the face of temptation. Think about a time (it may even be right now) when you have felt that you were in a wilderness. Picture it.

How were you led by the Spirit? Did that experience feel like a gift from God, a test from God, or a temptation from the devil?

Today is the second Sunday in Lent. Please pray for Women of the ELCA synodical presidents who are traveling home from Chicago today. This message was adapted from “Who Am I, Anyway?” by Terry L. Bowes that appeared in the March 1998 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.