Average

I’m pretty average.

I mean it. That’s not false humility or anything. I’m legitimately very average.

Most people like to think of themselves as “above average” (according to a number of surveys).

Not me. I’m as average as they come.

I barely broke a 3.0 GPA (in high school or college). I was on the varsity basketball team – but I didn’t start. I was second or third off the bench. I was a student council representative, but I never ran for office – and I for sure wouldn’t have won if I had. I wasn’t popular or unpopular. I lived in the middle.

My middle brother was the smart, hard-working one and my younger brother was the artistic, creative one.

I was, well, nothing in particular.

That used to bother me.

But I felt a lot better when I read about the disciples Jesus chose.

They were pretty ordinary. A handful of them caught fish for a living. One exploited his own people by collecting exorbitant taxes for Rome. Another was a militant knucklehead that wanted to overthrow Rome by force.

(Honestly, Jesus choosing those two to be His disciples and then calling them to love one another is a lesson in its own right.)

Here’s the point.

They weren’t the best and the brightest.  In fact, they were quite average.

If Jesus could use guys like that to change the world, then maybe He could use me too.

Think about it this way.

A paintbrush is quite an ordinary thing.

But in the hands of a capable artist, it can be used to create a masterpiece.

Most of us are pretty ordinary.

But an ordinary person in the hands of an extraordinary God can change the world.

If you feel ordinary, join the club. If you feel insignificant or insecure, get in line.

But – in the hands of a master Artist – what might God do in and through you? How might He turn your life into a masterpiece if only you’d submit to the guidance of His brush?

Vulnerable

God often meets His people in the desert. It is a place where they learn to depend upon Him and upon one another. It is where He prepares them for the purpose He has for them. It is where God can speak to them into the stillness of the desert.

But God is not the only one we encounter in the desert. There is an Enemy lurking. He tries to lure and tempt us and, weak as we are, he often triumphs.

Jesus confronted this enemy while He was in the desert.

Jesus went forty days without food there and, in the greatest understatement in the Bible, it says He “became very hungry” (Matthew 4:2, NLT).

In this moment of vulnerability, the Enemy confronted Jesus.

Satan – which in Hebrew means “the accuser” – tempts Jesus three times. Each angle the Enemy takes is worth study in its own right, but perhaps the most telling line in the account is Satan’s prelude to his temptations.

“If you are the Son of God…”

Just prior to Satan’s temptations, Jesus had been baptized by a man named John. As Jesus came out of the water, a voice boomed from heaven. “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy” (Matthew 3:17, NLT).

God had just publicly declared Jesus was His Son. Yet Satan calls into question Jesus’ identity.

If you are the Son of God.

Here’s the thing. If you are a Christian, God has also made a declaration about your identity.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! (1 John 3:1, NLT)

You are a part of God’s family.

But the Enemy will try to convince you otherwise.

He’ll come to you in the desert and whisper in your ear. He’ll call into question God’s love and care for you. He’ll come with accusation about how imperfect a child you are. He’ll plant the seeds of entitlement and distrust and bitterness and despair and anything else he can come up with to damage your relationship with God your Father.

He’ll even try to convince you that if you were really a child of God then you wouldn’t be in a desert in the first place.

The Enemy comes to us in the desert because we are vulnerable in the desert.

In our vulnerable state, we have two options.

We can be deceived by the Enemy or we can be dependent upon our Father.

Make no mistake. We’ll do one or the other.

If we are not dependent on God, we will be deceived by the Enemy.

When the Enemy begins to whisper, don’t listen. He’s a liar. Listen instead to the voice of the Father.

When the Enemy hurls temptations, ignore him and run to the Father for wisdom and strength.

When the Enemy calls into question your identity, remember who the Father says you are.

The Enemy is near, but the Father is nearer.