2. The power of the will
The devil literally asked Jesus to jump out of the temple quoting from the word of God to convince him about this insane act.As Christians we should align our will with the will of the father.He told him that it is written in the Bible that no man shall tempt the Lord our God.
Deuteronomy 6:16:You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.
This is one of the principles of God that we just ignore. But the fact that we ignore his principles doesn’t mean they don’t work. Take for example the law of gravity. You can’t beat gravity. As there are natural laws, there are God’s laws that we must obey no matter what.
One of these laws is the law of submission.You cannot make God do things for you as you make your subordinates.Who are you to command your creator to do something you want and not according to his will for your life?
We all wanted to do things which are regrettable and want the Lord to be part of that. You cannot do that. God won’t allow you to do things that you will regret it latter. Or at least you will do it without his will. Cannot make him your accomplice. No! That is not possible and sane.
In this scenario, we see Jesus make a decision one more time to honor his father by submitting himself to obey the word of God and hence made the devil look bad in this situation.
As for an atheist, this is a good example also. You don’t test your God.I don’t discourage your little curiosity and disbelief. God knows how to work on that and he will meet your needs if you have true hunger and trust for who He is and not blasphemy and pride that got the devil in to a problem.
According to the Bible, Jesus met Thomas and he said:
Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
That is all the Lord is saying to you today: “do not be unbelieving, but believing”.He also revealed his self to Paul and convict him of his dangerous zeal to the kingdom of God and he gave him warning and punishment.
3. Power
This is where most of us find it very difficult to keep our faith.It is always easy to please the Lord when things look empty and we feel powerless.But it takes the fear of him and wisdom to say, “You give ability and power to whomever you are pleased with. And it is not because of me but because of your generosity and grace that I am what I am today!”
Filled with gratitude and thanks giving we should reply to such form of temptation as Jesus showed us how it is done:
Go away Satan! The Scriptures say: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” Then the devil left Jesus, and angels came to help him.
Power is the most destructive force now a days for christians especially in these last days. It is so tempting and it makes everything possible without the consent of God.What made David pass through all that punishment was his inability to use his delegated power very cautiously.
He forcefully raped someone’s wife without even being asked why? And this someone turned out to be one of his loyal soldiers who happened to be fighting for him in the battle while David was having fun with his wife. And then he used his power to murder him so brutally so that his sins won’t come to public.
The fact that many people are abandoning their faith, that fact there are so much immorality both inside and outside the church is all because of the the loss of control on power that is given to us as children of God and
he lust to have even more pow
r.
God blessed us with so many things that we enjoy every day freely not because to cause harm to others and bring damage to the reputation of our Lord’s name among non-believers. It is only because he wanted us to take this amazing freedom and worship him and do good for the benefits of other with love. With more privileges come more responsibilities. Don’t consider yourself special since you are not better than your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Lust (Sin 1) is much easier to follow and commit when there is so much power (sin 3) on your hand especially when our own will is not according to his will (sin 2).
Jesus literally told the devil to go off reminding him that absolute power and glory belongs to God and he is not buying in to his non sense. Therefore, let us be very careful with regards to lust, will and the use of delegated power thinking that the days are short and the coming of Christ is near.
Have faith and believe in him who gave his life to you as a ransom to your sins. Someone has to die for someone to live. It is him he sacrificed for you and me.
Blessed are those who believe him without asking a proof that he even exist. Otherwise it is not faith but fact based on circumstantial evidence. Jesus doesn’t make himself a fact since fact changes over time. He said he is the TRUTH we all shall trust and believe in and the only WAY to the father and the LIFE we shall have being redeemed and set free for his glory.
When Jesus was done with his test, the angels were sent to comfort him and made him feel safe as a human being. But they were not there in the middle of the temptation. It looks like God wanted to see for himself whether we honor him with all we have or not.
But as for you and me, we have now a better chance than before not to fall in to temptations since Jesus Christ is interceding for our faith day and night. With him, we can reach to our goal. If God is with us, who can be against us.
The devil is defeated on the cross. Jesus did that for you and me. But since he knows that he has little time left, he will make things hard on us so that he might find anything that can ultimately break our relationships with God.
May God bless you for reading this blog! May the Lord gives you grace and power to withstand every attack from the enemy! May the Lord covers you with his love that makes you surrender for his will! May his abundance and blessing feels your home with peace and stability that you may withstand temptations arise from common cause and need.