Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong United sing “All I Need is You Lord” while reading today’s devotion on your true self.

Scripture
He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Luke 4:1-2

Observation
The three temptations of Jesus are remarkable because they show us all of our own. The bottom line was Satan’s attempt to lure Jesus to live by a false self rather than his true self.

The false self, is contorting ourselves so that we conform to the expectations of others. Those expectations can be high or low, for the Devil isn’t picky. He’s quite content to snare us at the edge or the center of his web. What matters to him is that we are caught.

The true self, is what God says about us and letting that definition express itself through our lives. Living by our true self is the most difficult yet the most simple way to live. It is difficult because it is so vulnerable. It requires a moment, by moment, relationship with the Father and complete reliance upon his power and protection. The vivid picture of that vulnerability, is the gaunt, silhouette of the starving Jesus in a desert sand storm.  The true self is the most simple way to live, because we never have to remember how we are to act. Instead, we simply are what Christ has called us to be.

Satan tried to get Jesus to live up to a false self.

The first temptation was to prove that the Father loved him as his Son. But Jesus would have none of that. A relationship cannot be proved, or else it ceases to be a free gift. A relationship can only be enjoyed privately and intimately. The moment we boast about it, the gift is gone and we must prove it over and over. True confidence in a relationship with the Lord is to enjoy it privately while all the world imagines that they know him better than we and that we do not.

The second temptation was to compromise a value so Jesus could get what he really wanted. Jesus was called to be King of kings, and so the allure of all the kingdoms of all the ages in an instant was a real one. But the trigger was to worship Satan. Jesus would not compromise a core value of loving God to shortcut his way to his destiny. Nor should we.

In the last temptation, Jesus was tempted to take his eyes off of the Father and to live up to the expectation of the crowd. Again, Jesus resisted this with a steady dependence on the words of his heavenly Father. The crowd could add nothing to him.

Application
As a pastor, I am tempted constantly to toss my true self for a false imitation. There are times I want to prove how valuable I am to the Lord and his plan and end up being plastic. There are times I want to compromise what I value to get what I want, but the wreckage of the ministry of others warns me. There are times that I am tempted to give the people what they want. But today, I make a renewed choice to be true to the true self God has called me to live.

Prayer
Father, today, I choose to follow you. Lead me not into temptation but please deliver me from evil, whether that is by your guiding hand or by my deliberate choices to move toward you. Today I make the choice to be real, authentic and true even if it leaves me hungry and alone in the desert. Amen.