Forty Words On These Forty Days

March 6, 2021 | By Shayley Martin DC ‘22

Pictured: An unmade bed with rumpled covers.

God wrote His law on my heart but it feels dry erase. [1] Jesus resisted the devil in the desert, angels attended Him, but I’m in my room, no mountains, no kingdoms. [2] Sometimes I glimpse it, though— life to the full. [3]

Notes

[1] This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people (Jeremiah 31:33 NIV).

[2]  And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:1-6 NIV).

[3] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10 NIV). 

This piece is a part of a syndicated series in collaboration with Duke Crux for Lent 2021. Read more at https://dukecrux.org/lent-2021/

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