I press towards the mark of the high calling. I’m pressing on to reach my goal. I press toward the mark of the high calling.

I press. I press. I press.

I forget those things that are behind me and I stretch myself to what’s ahead of me. I press towards the mark of the high calling.

I press. I press. I press.

I will never give up.

I’ve been binge watching Netflix competitive shows for a while now. My favourites are obstacle courses that test your endurance, perseverance, tenacity, strength and determination. I found a particularly captivating one that had me on my tippy toes. “The Ultimate Beast-Master”.

It was a joy to watch athletes put in their very best to overcome greatly challenging obstacles and tests of their strength and will to win. A particular athlete quickly stood out for me. Firstly, because he had a beautiful family and a super cute baby rooting for him. Secondly, because he was previously diagnosed with autoimmune multiple sclerosis but had overcome the disease to become a full blown athlete. Thirdly, because there was a light about him I couldn’t quite place my finger on. I just found myself rooting for him from the start.

By the semi-finals, a little background story revealed him to be a Christian missionary. At first, I thought, “every Christian missionary should look like that!” Lol. It was no wonder that I just supported the super ripped handsome Christian guy on the TV.

Now to the fun part. I hope I describe the scenario properly.

The semi-finals was down to six athletes and only the top three could progress to the final. The obstacle course comprised three separate parts. Each athlete had a chance to go at it twice. Therefore, if they failed at the first try, they had the chance to try it one more time although with a penalty.

The first athlete to run the course had a whopping mark which put him at the top of the leader board because he managed to run through the first and second parts of the course.

My favourite, whom I will call Christian was the second athlete to run the course. Before he run, he spoke about his missionary experience and love for God. He also shared another significant thing. The scripture he had read that morning. Psalm 115. He stated that he was not in the race for himself, but for the Lord because the Lord had given him the strength to run. And he wanted all glory to belong to God. Lastly, he said this, “it is not about competing, I am running my own race to win the prize.”

Wow. If I was half-heartedly rooting for him at the beginning, he had my full support from this point until the end.

Now, let me get to the interesting part of this story. Christian started the first part of the course, and just as he was almost at the end of it, he fell! Bummer right? He had a decision to make. He either had to use his lifesaver to run the course again (therefore loosing some points) and hope to finish the first part completely, or reject the lifesaver and stick with the points he had – hoping he could still somehow make it to the finals. Bear in mind that he was unable to beat the athlete in first place. He had no idea how the other athletes after him would do. His marks were also average at best. But he said something. He said that a voice deep inside him had told him not to do it again. He had done his best with his strength. Christian admitted that the area he had failed at was a weakness for him as an athlete and he was not sure he would be able to finish it even if he did it a second time. Yikes! I’ll bet that people thought he was a quitter.

The commentators called his decision a chess move of chance. I called it faith. He took a leap of faith. To be honest, the odds were against him. There were four excellent athletes attempting the course after him who had done waaay better than he did in previous rounds. His decision seemed to be completely foolish. The worst thing was that the immediate athlete who run the course just just after Christian messed up at the same place he did but decided on a do over. That do over took that athlete at first place and put Christian in danger of being eliminated. I was on the edge of my seat!

Christian understandably began to doubt if he had made the right decision. At this point, I was almost giving up with him. But people! Keep the faith. Because what came next blew my mind. The final three athletes who had to beat his mark to oust him all failed in their first courses. They failed right before the area that he had failed at. What even made it more interesting was that they all used their lifesavers yet still they all could not complete the course. It was as if an angel was at the exact same point of the obstacle, blocking them and pushing them into the water. It was hilarious. It was miraculous! I was grinning from ear to ear like a clown. I could not contain my excitement. I was blown away. So blown away that I picked up my Bible to see exactly what was written in Psalm 115!

I will share from verse 1 to 11 below:

Psalm 115

Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name goes all the glory
for your unfailing love and faithfulness.
Why let the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens,
and he does as he wishes.
Their idols are merely things of silver and gold,
shaped by human hands.
They have mouths but cannot speak,
and eyes but cannot see.
They have ears but cannot hear,
and noses but cannot smell.
They have hands but cannot feel,
and feet but cannot walk,
and throats but cannot make a sound.
And those who make idols are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.
Israel, trust the Lord!
He is your helper and your shield.
O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord!
He is your helper and your shield.
All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord!
He is your helper and your shield.

Wow. This is the kind of revelation that empowers you for any obstacle.

First of all, my first lesson was to do my devotion. Because it is that word that will lead me to make a winning decision in my day.

Most importantly, this showed me how God works. Our God is not asleep. Everyone thought Christian was done for. But instead, they all watched the rest of the athletes fall like helpless dominoes attempting obstacles they had previously bested. Right there, Christian realised that his faith in God had not failed. God showed him in the most fantastic way how He works. God does as He wishes. And men are but mere men. Christian realised where his strength ended and where God’s sovereignty could elevate him to. It was marvellous to see.

In 2 Corinthians 12:10, Paul had a weakness, and he wanted it to just go away, but he had to learn that God’s strength is perfected in his weakness. Christian learned that on this course. And I also got to learn it too as I watched it unfold. I especially needed it because I have been trying my best to overcome my own weaknesses. Hoping that going at it again and again will do the trick. But my strength can only go so far. Grace is what I need.

Grace is also what you need. Grace doesn’t say keep trying, it says keep trusting. The point has come to trust in God’s all encompassing grace. The grace that covers our wrongs and shortcomings. The grace that tells us that no matter how much you go at it, your strength will fail so trust in Me. Trust even if you fail. Trust in My divine power. Trust in My mercy. Trust in My love. Trust in My Son who gave His life to perfect you. Trust in the One who can make you into what He wants you to be.

Like Christian said, we are each running our race. Running not against each other. But running to each win our prize. We are on our own obstacle courses filled with so many weights and sins and temptations. Trying to tame the beast. The biggest obstacle in the race being our own selves and our weaknesses. But like Paul said in Hebrews 12, we get to run and finish only with our eyes set on Jesus. The grace giver. The prize giver. The author and finisher of our faith.

So it might seem like you have failed. It may seem like you have fallen into the water with a big splosh. it may feel like you have hit the hard ground with a huge splat. But where your strength ‘felled’ you. Grace will lift you up. And you will finish knowing that grace won you the race.

Press on by faith.

This one is an all time favorite. Don’t pass it over and be blessed.

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Matthew 4:1-11 or Luke 4:1-13.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. ² For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. ³ During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
⁴ But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, ⁶ and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’
⁷ Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’
⁸ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”
¹⁰ “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’
¹¹ Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus

As I lay on my bed and mulled this over, I compared the temptation of Jesus with another temptation story in the Bible that some of us may know well. The infamous fall of Adam and Eve (See Genesis 3). For those who do not know the story, satan, disguised as a serpent, deceived Adam and Eve to eat a forbidden fruit God had instructed them not to eat. Therefore, they sinned.

With this background, I decided to explore the two scenarios.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Jesus is the last Adam. The perfect Adam. A life-giving Spirit. I compared these two Adams and their temptations. I have, on one hand, ‘first Adam’. First Adam was living in a beautiful and perfect garden. It had everything good. A beautiful woman (in my opinion, everything God made was good so I believe Eve was beautiful). In the garden, there were trees that produced all kinds of fruit which he could eat to his fill. He was in a fruitful green blossoming garden. Birds chirping. A beautiful breeze. A gentle brook. Colorful swimming fish wiggling their fins. Every kind of animal you can think of living in harmony and eating plants. No predators or prey. Perfection. (See Genesis 2).

Then I take a look at Second Adam (Jesus). He was in the wilderness. Dry, hot, and dusty. Barely any green trees to be seen for miles not to talk of fruits. No pretty birds chirping. No harmless plant-eating wild animals. Rather there were probably those who would readily have him for breakfast, lunch or supper. A blazing hot sun. Buzzing flies and biting bugs. Thorns and thistles. Snakes and scorpions. And hunger. His cousin John had previously been eating locusts from the same wilderness.

These two Adams find themselves in divergent circumstances. One (the first Adam) was in a place of plenty and the other (Jesus) in a place of want. The first was in a very comfortable place, and the other in a place you and I wouldn’t go for a holiday vacation.

We also have a third person in both pictures, “the snake” (the devil), who comes to tempt them. Now, something we need to take note of is that the snake is very deceptive (Genesis 3:1). His job is to twist the true picture of any circumstance as long as it makes God look like the bad guy. He is good at it. We have a multitude of people in the world today who have fallen for that deception. The Bible tells us not to be ignorant of his wiles (2 Corinthians 2:11).

The first Adam had so much! You and I can agree on that. He lived in plenty but in the garden of all that abundance, the snake deceived him so well that he overlooked all the plenty he had. He saw what He did not have. He only saw the one thing he could not have among the others that were readily his to enjoy. This picture was a lie. A fraud. A hoax. The first Adam had God as his father. He had everything because God is the source of everything. Yet God was transformed in first Adam’s eyes. Transformed into a wicked God who did not want to give him the best he deserved. So first Adam believed and accepted the lie and fell from his place of sonship because he trusted in the words of the devil over the word of God. He failed a test that ideally should have been easy to pass.

Now, this crafty serpent again shows up in a completely different scenario and this time around changes his narrative. He doesn’t show up as a lying snake this time. He comes as himself. For forty days he was on ‘Mission Temptation’. For forty days he attempted to get Jesus Christ to repeat the mistake of the first Adam. In his temptations, he tried to make Jesus, the last Adam believe another lie. Using the same modus operandi. The falsehood he was perpetuating was that even though Jesus had the right to plenty, God was making Him live in lack. Therefore, he incited Jesus to do something about the situation. Just as he did in the garden, he again comes with his word (a lie) to challenge the word of God (the truth). Luke 4:1-13.

Satan’s wiles:

a. Why was Jesus hungry from unnecessary fasting when He already had the power to turn stone into bread. I mean God was asking too much wasn’t He?

b. You are the Son of God. Why have you allowed yourself to be limited and belittled as a mere man here? Show God that as His Son you deserve better. you don’t deserve to be treated this way.

c. If your Father won’t give you what you truly deserve, I will. Just turn Your allegiance to me. Make me your god. I have what it takes to make you rule.

These are the same lies he sells to man over and over again and many fall for it.

But where the first Adam failed, the second did not. Where the first Adam was weak, the second was strong. Where the first Adam was deceived, the second Adam untangled the web of lies.

Jesus could see the value of God’s word beyond the present circumstances. That God would not withhold any good thing from him. Because as the Bible says in the same chapter, the Spirit of God led Him to that place of hardship. For Jesus, it was the will of God, and if it was God’s will, then it was good. He saw God’s love and faithfulness in lack and hunger. In a dry place. In a difficult place. He saw a garden of goodness in the word of God which He had heard and absolutely believed. He was sure of His place as the Son of God. He had nothing to prove of Himself except to trust His Father’s word and to do only what the Father had asked Him to do. Where the first Adam chose to live by the bread (the forbidden fruit) rather than the words that had proceeded from God’s mouth, the second Adam made a better, higher choice which set the pace for the redemption of mankind. Redemption towards a place where we can see plenty in the driest wilderness. He established Himself as one who gives life by upholding the truth unconditionally. Where God’s word is enough to sustain us whether we are in plenty or in want. For the word of God is what we need to live.

Jesus made a choice for truth. He believed in God’s word. His circumstances gave Him every reason to doubt, yet He trusted God in spite of it. He overcame the devil by the word of His testimony of who He believed God to be. True about His words.

So dear reader, it is not about plenty or the want. It is not about the circumstances you find yourself in. It is all about whom you believe. There is the truth, and there is the lie. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He alone knows it, and it is through Him that we know it too. In this world full of falsehoods and deception. We need truth to hang on to. A foundation that does not quiver so that we can build our existence. Just like the two Adams, a choice is always available. And whether we like it or not, it is either truth or lies.

My fervent hope and prayer is that you would choose the one who is able to lead you into all truth. Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.

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