Can We Face Satan’s Old Tricks In The Form of New Temptations?
Good Morning Friends,
Everyone who has experienced God in their lives, in personal fellowship, also acknowledges the great value of this life with God, perhaps even in fear of losing this joy. And just resting on the Sabbath, as I did yesterday can be a joy of soaking in the presence of God that is greater than yes even the American Dream. This kind of fast that affirms the reality of God is greater than our own. And yet the unreasonableness of the beliefs that underlies this Christianity we promote presents us with an intellectual difficulty. We experience God but, desire intellectual assurance of the foundations of our faith. In addition, we all must face trouble. And we all are tempted to deny God’s authority. These are formidable obstacles to our faith. Can We Face Satan’s Old Tricks In The Form of New Temptations?
Scripture: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:13 (NRSV)
All our steps are ordered by the Lord; how then can we understand our own ways?
Proverbs 20:24 (NRSV)
Message: The Bible is filled with stories of people who were tempted and how they fared. Of course, the temptations of Adam and Eve as well as the one of Jesus, in today’s scripture, are the most notable. But we also have the temptations of Joseph who handles them with amazing grace, worthy of our admiration. It is interesting to compare the temptations of Jesus and Adam. One takes place in paradise and the other in a wilderness. One is about feasting and the other about fasting. Pairing this reality with our desire to know God and the Lord’s prayer reveals to us that God does not do the tempting—he does not put evil desires in our hearts but he does bring us into the presence of many tests and temptations on the journey. In fact, every step we take is a step into the presence of temptation. There is no moment of our life that is not a moment of temptation, a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility. That is what life is about and it all hinges on the choice between belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. And sometimes we want to yield and step inside the temptation denying God. You see, the greatest obstacle to our seeking faith can be suffering. But the very fact that we have so many questions and that the variety of answers keeps developing indicates the importance of the quest itself. So, perhaps I do not need proof God exists to avoid yielding to temptation but I do need to affirm God for the answer to the ultimate question to be revealed. Will I be loved by God? If we have a creed of No God then all we are left with is our own minds and how pathetic is that…. No, we need to believe in something greater. We were made for this purpose and that is why we must face temptation and win. Friends, we are invited to dance of faith believing that there is truth out there somewhere beyond the evolution of human thought and beyond a foundation of the logic of rules. And if we run the race with patience we might learn to believe that Jesus will perfect our faith for he too knows what it means to be tested by the evil one.
Pray we hold fast to what is good. Pray we work to assure that virtue is the foundation for our knowledge. Pray we work our faith into our character. Pray we leverage our desire to know, to become a proof of that which we seek. Pray we stand up to the challenge and never deny God. Pray we, like Jesus, are moved by the Spirit to sacrifice comfort for something better. Pray we have clear vision and discernment when faced with false teachers. Pray when we are tempted, instead of denying God we deny ourselves. Pray we realize that there is a hole in the Gospel that each believer is to help fill. Pray we are moved by our gratitude for all those who have gone before. Pray Jesus help us to live victoriously as a witness to the reality that with Jesus we can face evil. Pray we have an appetite for God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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