I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has [found] nothing in Me. John 14:30
“The devil does not have only one weapon. He uses many different means to defeat human beings: now with bribery, now with boredom, now with greed he attacks, inflicting mental and physical wounds equally.
The kind of temptation varies with the different kinds of victim. Avarice is the test of the rich, loss of children that of parents and everyone is exposed to pain of mind and body. What a wealth of weapons is at the devil’s disposal!
It was for this reason that the Lord chose to have nothing to lose. He came to us in poverty so that the devil could find nothing to take away from Him. “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has [found] nothing in Me.” John 14:30
The devil could only test Him with bodily pains, but this too was useless because Christ despised bodily suffering.”
Ambrose of Milan in On the Gospel of Luke 4.39 (SC9, 162ff) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 133-134.
The more we fast and do without certain things during Lent, the more we discover that we really don’t need those things like we thought we did. Jesus ministered without them, so do we really need them?
I have a friend that is “going for broke” this Lent. While the world aims for prosperity, he’s aiming for poverty following Christ’s example. Does that shock you? It means traveling lightly and living generously.
Remember, Jesus modeled the way! He had nothing to lose. For example, when He sent out the 70 in Luke 10, He wanted them to go out broke, to have nothing to lose, to teach them God would supply.
The conference went great today in Amman. GTP provided biblical and practical governance teaching to 40+ influencers. Pray the seeds planted will bear fruit, and praise God we’ve already been invited back.
Now Andrew Mahfouz, Ereny Monir, and I have arrived at the Dead Sea to retreat with the Lord together to discern next steps regarding all we have seen and heard from these governance trainings in Cairo and Amman.