DAILY HOPE DEVOTIONAL: NOVEMBER 18 IF JESUS IS TEMPTED, WHO CAN’T?SCRIPTURE: Matt. 4: 1-11
Over times, many have viewed temptations coming to Christians as an indication of not yet being accepted by God. Many Christians have believed that a true Christian cannot be subjected to temptation by the evil forces. Several Christians ended up believing that Satanic power could be mightier than God’s, since their prayers of “deliver us from all evil” never resulted to how it is being prayed. To an ordinary mind, it confuses the mind seeing one under the temptations from the unseen forces. Could it mean we are not good Christians? Can we conclude that those passing through temptations are not amongst the “Chosen generation?” Could it be that one is not praying enough against temptation? All these questions and more have been asked by Christians. The most troubling side of this is that, the Bible contains the story that Jesus Christ was ushered into a wilderness of temptation after He had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
The Bible has it that as soon as Jesus Christ ended the fasting and praying, Satan moved in and asked Him to turn stone into bread since He has been hungry all this while. Satan convinced Jesus to do this since He is a Son of God. Jesus made Satan to know that “A man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4: 4). Still, Satan did not give up. He brought another scheme as temptation on Jesus. He moved Jesus to the Holy City, to the top of the Temple, stood him on the pinnacle of the temple and asked Jesus to jump down. Here again Satan assured Jesus that as a Son of God, the angels of heaven will have positioned themselves so that Jesus falls into their hands safely as seen in Matt. 4: 6; using Psalm 91: 11-12. Here again, Jesus reminded Satan how it was written that “Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God.
The third temptation, Satan brought to Jesus was taking Him to a mountain overseeing everything in the city. Satan showed Jesus the splendours of the city, the beautiful buildings, the flocks, herds, the riches and wealth of the city. He asked Jesus to bow to him in worship so that he, Satan will give everything in the city to Jesus free. At this point, Jesus charged at Satan and commanded him to get behind Him. We can now see that Satan attempted to tempt Jesus who he knows very well as a Son of God. He used suggestions to tell Jesus to do these things; knowing the implications involved. His aims were to commit Jesus into doing things against His Father’s time and will. Till date, Satan is much around to tempt Christians by suggesting evil things to our hearts and urges us to carry them out.
This devotional is encouraging readers to never again feel bad when evil conceptions or suggestions enter their mind to go against the will of God. Jesus said no servant can be greater than his master. If the master is tempted the servant can be tempted too. If Jesus is tempted by Satan, who then cannot? Our next devotionals will present to readers, lessons contained in the temptation of Jesus.
PRAYER:
LORD JESUS, as you had divine knowledge to overcome all Satan’s suggestions to escape his temptations, kindly supply me with the grace to overcome temptations directed at me by Satan and evil forces.
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