The Angels Are Already There

​In the bible, the spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. If you've ever spent time in the wilderness of your life feeling tempted by the devil - and I have - you might relate.

As the story goes on, after 40 days of fasting, Jesus was hungry. That's when the devil showed up. And again, if it's ever felt to you like the devil shows up trying to make unhealthy answers seem like healthy answers in your weakest moments - you might relate.

The devil told Jesus, if you're the son of God, just turn these stones into bread. Jesus responded by assuring the devil there was more to life than bread.

Then the devil led Jesus to the highest point of a temple and told him to jump, for the bible says the angels will show up and rescue you. Jesus basically told the devil, "I know who I am, I don't need to be performing magic tricks for you."

And finally, the devil took Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. The devil told Jesus if he would simply bow down and worship him the kingdoms would be all his.

And Jesus said, I will only worship God.

After that, the bible tells us:

"The devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

When we are in the wilderness of our lives, it is hard to imagine angels waiting to attend to us. I suppose that's because when we're in the wilderness of our lives the devil is good at convincing us things in our lives are angels that aren't really angels.

In the wilderness we get good at replacing real angels with pretend angels.

We get good at believing angels aren't showing up so these substances will fill my need for bread.

We get good at believing angels aren't showing up so we start leaning into our own superhuman strength which in the end turns out to be far more destructive than super-anything.

We get good at believing if I simply accumulate power and wealth, I'll no longer have a need for angels. And further, in the accumulation I will actually BECOME an angel. Maybe even THE angel.

The wilderness - the dark places in our lives - they are tricky. They can get us turning to angels that aren't angels and eventually to not believing in angels at all.

The devil tried to trick Jesus into calling upon false angels. Jesus avoided falling for the trick by knowing, without any doubt, that the real angels were already there.

There with him in the wilderness. There waiting to attend to him when he walked out.

Today might throw something at you that will make you question if the angels would really show up for someone like you. The best response, at least I know it's the best one for me today, remind life that the angel is already there.