So many times, when a person chooses to desert his or her family because of selfishness, he or she ends up in an emotional and social desert.
The same principle, of course, applies to job responsibilities and financially barren circumstances that almost always follow.
The Apostle Peter knew firsthand about how desertion of responsibility led to a bitter time in the desert of despair.
Peter said in Matthew 26 that even if everybody else betrayed Jesus, he would NEVER do so — “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” (v. 35).
Just a few hours later, though, Peter was in the most barren of emotional and spiritual deserts.
Why? Because he had deserted His Savior.
We want to believe that we would never do such a thing and that we haven’t done such a thing.
But haven’t we sinned?
Haven’t we caved in at least once to peer pressure that called us to set aside loyalty to faith, even for a brief time?
Haven’t we marched into the trap of Satan at least once with the presumptuousness of God’s grace toward us despite our momentary rebellion toward Him?
Listen, Satan tells us that deserting the Messiah for “a bit of fun” or a “bit of payback” or a “bit of an emotional escape” won’t hurt us. After all, he tells us, there are people doing things a whole lot worse.
What he doesn’t tell us is that sin always has a consequence, that deserting faith temporarily always leads to a time in the desert emotionally and spiritually.
We might not sense it right away, but sooner or later we will.
And Satan will snicker.
Let’s reject every temptation to desert our faith. Even if the lure is described as momentary.
Never forget that Satan is a liar. He lied to Eve and Adam and look at what has happened since because they deserted faith for just a moment.
Let’s always give Jesus the loyalty He deserves rather than deserting Him in the moment.
The desert of shame and despair is the last place we want to be.
As always, I love you
Martin
