Spiritual Warfare, Obedience & Trust
All of us are tested by God but few are put to the ultimate test. In Part 3 God puts Karen to the test.
Genesis 22: 1-2 The Testing of Abraham. Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test and said to him: Abraham! “Here I am!” he replied. Then God said: Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.
Paul went into the desert to pray. Karen’s desert was the church where she pleads for help to remove the cross she is being asked to bear.
Mk 1:12-13 At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for 40 days, tempted by the devil. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
1 Peter 5: 8-10 Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
Jesus, asks the Father to take this cup from Him, as does Karen.
Mark 14: 36 "Father," he prayed, "my Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want."
This parable is for all of us.
Luke 9: 22-25 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Clarence