Nougat 5

I remember playing a little game ‘Mind dog bite yuh’ as a child. It’s hard to explain, but it invited watchful trust. The refrain was ‘follow me; follow me; mind dogs bite you.’ Sometimes in our play we got bit , but generally we were rescued/we escaped in the nick of time. In today’s Holy Nougat, we see a different type of following. And we reflect on this afterwards.

“Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.”

Luke 4:1-2 NLT

It is important to note, Jesus was Filled with God’s Spirit, and He was Under the Leadership of God’s Spirit. As followers of Jesus, that promise holds: we too ought to be Led by God’s Spirit, as God’s Spirit Fills us up.

At the risk of repeating myself, here is a thought – we can only be filled from the point of our emptiness! Recently while cooking, I kept some water in a mug. As the food tenderized, I started to attend to another dish. It also needed liquid,. Some time later, I grabbed the mug, and filled it with warm water. The result – tepid tea, because the cup was already half filled with water; and diluted tea since there was a bit of seasoning (flavor) in the water.

Believers, you and I are the mugs. We

realize that we are the temple of God’s Spirit. (That’s yesterday’s reflection). Thus we open ourselves to the Spirit’s leadership. And we might find ourselves being led into unexpected places. Jesus, under the Spirit’s leading was taken to the Wilderness for Forty Days. We don’t know ALL that entailed, but we know He fasted and was Tempted. We also know Jesus overcame And that angels (more than one) ministered to Him.

If as believers, we are Filled with God’s Spirit as He; then it stands to reason that we may have similar experiences. Under God’s Spirit we may find ourselves in the wilderness, literally or figuratively. But even when in the wilderness; even when we are tempted; we can overcome. As Jesus emptied himself through fasting, we too can forfeit some time, talent, treasure or tasty morsel to focus on God. This is one of the ways we are Filled with God’s Spirit: through Spirit-led prayer and fasting.

Of course, as the mug, we can determine to allow God’s Spirit to fill us from empty, or we try to be filled in diluted ways. True, it’s God’s Spirit Who empties us; but when we insist on holding to the past – hurts, loss, disease and/or sin – we set ourselves up for reduced infilling.

What do we need to release to God before we are properly filled?

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May all we seek be found in Christ