Satan continues to successfully tempt us

Who of us wants to be told that the image we have of ourselves is flawed?
As a college student selling shoes at the mall, I quickly learned one of the basic rules of salesmanship: Do not try to convince a customer who tells you she wears a size “4” that she in fact wears a size “8.”
Shopping for trousers recently, I was not happy to admit that the waist size I bought last year will not fit this year.
Twice in recent years I have been forced to wear cumbersome casts to immobilize broken bones. I was disgruntled with the discomfort and confinement brought on by my injuries and embarrassed by my increased dependency on others.
Most of us have at least a subconscious ideal of what perfection would be for us. That ideal motivates our choice of clothes and car and vacation, the school we choose for our children, perhaps even the parish we attend. Such ideals can exert a strong positive influence on us, challenging us to do our best at everything. But followed blindly, our images of perfection can also be the cause of financial debt and personal chaos, as we chase after any number of things that simply could never be good for us.
Often it is not a matter of placing our ideals too high but of misplacing them altogether.
Our tendency to search blindly for perfection is exploited by advertisers of every manner of product, who subtly seek to confirm our unsettling suspicion that who we are is not good enough. “This” will make you better, they imply. That is the ploy Satan uses successfully with Adam and Eve and attempts to use with Jesus — but with dramatically different results.
Adam and Eve were the beloved creatures of God, who provided for their every need. There was only one thing off limits for them, the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. The serpent seduces them into believing that they should not allow God to oppress them by refusing them such delectable, potent fruit. It won’t kill you to eat it, he alleges, despite what God has told you. He adds, “No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”
Don’t be limited, he told them. The sky’s the limit! God just doesn’t want any competition.
Satan tried to do the same to Jesus by tempting him to be self-sufficient and make his own bread from stones; by challenging him to display his majesty by showing how the angels would rescue him if he jumped off the temple; and by claiming to be able to present all the kingdoms of the world on a platter if Jesus would only bow to him. But Jesus replies: God alone will be my food. I do not need a show of angels to prove my trust in God. I will give glory to the only God, my heavenly Father. Get away from me!
Adam and Eve refused to accept their limitations as creatures, and they bought the lie that they could be something they could never be, gods. On the other hand, Jesus, who was divine, willingly took on every human limitation except sin to show us where we find salvation: not by blindly groping for perfection but by embracing our lives as creatures who depend on God alone. Adam and Eve had been distracted from this truth, but Jesus would let nothing distract him from his Father.
Our false ideals, temptations, dissatisfaction with limits and our weaknesses converge in the biblical episodes of Adam and Eve in the garden and Jesus in the desert. Our Lenten challenge is to face both our sin and our inclination to accept or at least dabble in our fascination with Satan’s seductive arguments. Some things are not good for sons and daughters of God and never will be — but Satan never tires of trying to convince us otherwise.
It is in part because of this age-old dynamic that we quietly fast, pray and give alms during Lent. We need to peel away layer after layer of pretense and false ideals — after all, it is often at the level of pretense and lie that Satan approaches us — so that we will hear God speaking to our hearts.
Do you have an intention for Bishop Sartain’s prayer? If so, send it to him c/o Bishop Sartain’s Prayer List, Diocese of Little Rock, 2500 North Tyler St., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock AR 72217.

Latest from From the Bishop

Satan continues to successfully tempt us

Who of us wants to be told that the image we have of ourselves is flawed?
As a college student selling shoes at the mall, I quickly learned one of the basic rules of salesmanship: Do not try to convince a customer who tells you she wears a size “4” that she in fact wears a size “8.”
Shopping for trousers recently, I was not happy to admit that the waist size I bought last year will not fit this year.
Twice in recent years I have been forced to wear cumbersome casts to immobilize broken bones. I was disgruntled with the discomfort and confinement brought on by my injuries and embarrassed by my increased dependency on others.
Most of us have at least a subconscious ideal of what perfection would be for us. That ideal motivates our choice of clothes and car and vacation, the school we choose for our children, perhaps even the parish we attend. Such ideals can exert a strong positive influence on us, challenging us to do our best at everything. But followed blindly, our images of perfection can also be the cause of financial debt and personal chaos, as we chase after any number of things that simply could never be good for us.
Often it is not a matter of placing our ideals too high but of misplacing them altogether.
Our tendency to search blindly for perfection is exploited by advertisers of every manner of product, who subtly seek to confirm our unsettling suspicion that who we are is not good enough. “This” will make you better, they imply. That is the ploy Satan uses successfully with Adam and Eve and attempts to use with Jesus — but with dramatically different results.
Adam and Eve were the beloved creatures of God, who provided for their every need. There was only one thing off limits for them, the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. The serpent seduces them into believing that they should not allow God to oppress them by refusing them such delectable, potent fruit. It won’t kill you to eat it, he alleges, despite what God has told you. He adds, “No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”
Don’t be limited, he told them. The sky’s the limit! God just doesn’t want any competition.
Satan tried to do the same to Jesus by tempting him to be self-sufficient and make his own bread from stones; by challenging him to display his majesty by showing how the angels would rescue him if he jumped off the temple; and by claiming to be able to present all the kingdoms of the world on a platter if Jesus would only bow to him. But Jesus replies: God alone will be my food. I do not need a show of angels to prove my trust in God. I will give glory to the only God, my heavenly Father. Get away from me!
Adam and Eve refused to accept their limitations as creatures, and they bought the lie that they could be something they could never be, gods. On the other hand, Jesus, who was divine, willingly took on every human limitation except sin to show us where we find salvation: not by blindly groping for perfection but by embracing our lives as creatures who depend on God alone. Adam and Eve had been distracted from this truth, but Jesus would let nothing distract him from his Father.
Our false ideals, temptations, dissatisfaction with limits and our weaknesses converge in the biblical episodes of Adam and Eve in the garden and Jesus in the desert. Our Lenten challenge is to face both our sin and our inclination to accept or at least dabble in our fascination with Satan’s seductive arguments. Some things are not good for sons and daughters of God and never will be — but Satan never tires of trying to convince us otherwise.
It is in part because of this age-old dynamic that we quietly fast, pray and give alms during Lent. We need to peel away layer after layer of pretense and false ideals — after all, it is often at the level of pretense and lie that Satan approaches us — so that we will hear God speaking to our hearts.
Do you have an intention for Bishop Sartain’s prayer? If so, send it to him c/o Bishop Sartain’s Prayer List, Diocese of Little Rock, 2500 North Tyler St., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock AR 72217.

Latest from From the Bishop

Satan continues to successfully tempt us

Who of us wants to be told that the image we have of ourselves is flawed?
As a college student selling shoes at the mall, I quickly learned one of the basic rules of salesmanship: Do not try to convince a customer who tells you she wears a size “4” that she in fact wears a size “8.”
Shopping for trousers recently, I was not happy to admit that the waist size I bought last year will not fit this year.
Twice in recent years I have been forced to wear cumbersome casts to immobilize broken bones. I was disgruntled with the discomfort and confinement brought on by my injuries and embarrassed by my increased dependency on others.
Most of us have at least a subconscious ideal of what perfection would be for us. That ideal motivates our choice of clothes and car and vacation, the school we choose for our children, perhaps even the parish we attend. Such ideals can exert a strong positive influence on us, challenging us to do our best at everything. But followed blindly, our images of perfection can also be the cause of financial debt and personal chaos, as we chase after any number of things that simply could never be good for us.
Often it is not a matter of placing our ideals too high but of misplacing them altogether.
Our tendency to search blindly for perfection is exploited by advertisers of every manner of product, who subtly seek to confirm our unsettling suspicion that who we are is not good enough. “This” will make you better, they imply. That is the ploy Satan uses successfully with Adam and Eve and attempts to use with Jesus — but with dramatically different results.
Adam and Eve were the beloved creatures of God, who provided for their every need. There was only one thing off limits for them, the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. The serpent seduces them into believing that they should not allow God to oppress them by refusing them such delectable, potent fruit. It won’t kill you to eat it, he alleges, despite what God has told you. He adds, “No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”
Don’t be limited, he told them. The sky’s the limit! God just doesn’t want any competition.
Satan tried to do the same to Jesus by tempting him to be self-sufficient and make his own bread from stones; by challenging him to display his majesty by showing how the angels would rescue him if he jumped off the temple; and by claiming to be able to present all the kingdoms of the world on a platter if Jesus would only bow to him. But Jesus replies: God alone will be my food. I do not need a show of angels to prove my trust in God. I will give glory to the only God, my heavenly Father. Get away from me!
Adam and Eve refused to accept their limitations as creatures, and they bought the lie that they could be something they could never be, gods. On the other hand, Jesus, who was divine, willingly took on every human limitation except sin to show us where we find salvation: not by blindly groping for perfection but by embracing our lives as creatures who depend on God alone. Adam and Eve had been distracted from this truth, but Jesus would let nothing distract him from his Father.
Our false ideals, temptations, dissatisfaction with limits and our weaknesses converge in the biblical episodes of Adam and Eve in the garden and Jesus in the desert. Our Lenten challenge is to face both our sin and our inclination to accept or at least dabble in our fascination with Satan’s seductive arguments. Some things are not good for sons and daughters of God and never will be — but Satan never tires of trying to convince us otherwise.
It is in part because of this age-old dynamic that we quietly fast, pray and give alms during Lent. We need to peel away layer after layer of pretense and false ideals — after all, it is often at the level of pretense and lie that Satan approaches us — so that we will hear God speaking to our hearts.
Do you have an intention for Bishop Sartain’s prayer? If so, send it to him c/o Bishop Sartain’s Prayer List, Diocese of Little Rock, 2500 North Tyler St., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock AR 72217.

Latest from From the Bishop