To be fully HUMAN — A Daily Reflection

  

 

    Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

   Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"

   Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
   " ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
      and they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’"

   Jesus answered him, "It is also 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.  "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

   Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"

   Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

 

Don’t let anyone mislead you - Satan is real.  He is not a fairy tale.  He is not symbolic.  He also is not an almost comical little guy in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork.  He is a fallen angel… a created being… the most beautiful angel God created.  (Ezekiel 28:12-15 NIV)  But Lucifer became too full of himself – filled with pride and a lust for power.  Spurred on by his ravenous appetite for power and glory, he sought to be like God… to be equal with God… to be a god himself.  Because of that, God threw him out of heaven, casting him down to earth.  Stripped of his beauty and stripped of his name, he became Satan, the tempter, the one who seeks to murder men’s souls. 

 

He’s been trying to block God’s plan since his fall.  He tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.  He tempted Jesus in the desert.  And he’s tempting you and me right now.

 

As power-hungry as he is, why would he offer Jesus kingship over the world?  Why would he tempt Jesus to declare His Kingship by commanding the stones to turn to bread or to throw Himself off the temple and be saved by the angels?  Because if Jesus had declared His Kingship at that point, it would have been Jesus’ lust for power that came to the front, not His servant’s heart that sought only to do God’s will.  God’s perfect plan would have been destroyed.  Jesus could not have fulfilled God’s purpose in Him as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, because by giving in to Satan’s temptation, Jesus would have sinned.  And if Jesus had given in, Satan would have won.

 

God has a plan for each of our lives… a perfect plan… a plan that suits His purpose for us… a plan that glorifies His name.  Each and every time we allow Satan to win - each and every time we give in to temptation – we are blocking God’s plan for our lives, at least for that moment.

 

So what do we do about it?  First, we make a total, sold-out commitment to Jesus - to love Him and to be obedient to His Word, no matter what.  That’s the first big step.  The second is to stick to it.  Almost without fail, when a person makes that commitment, Satan pulls out the big guns.  And very often, God becomes very silent.  He allows Satan to go whole hog for a while, so we can discover how strong our commitment really is.  For some of us, that "while" is very brief.  For others, that "while" may take years.  (Remember the children of Israel and their forty years in the desert!)  But no matter how long that period of testing, remember this - God loves you.  His purpose for your life is perfect.  Do your part in fulfilling that purpose by sticking to your commitment no matter what.  Don’t slow things down by vacillating back and forth.  Stick with your commitment and let Him fulfill His perfect purpose in you.

 

"…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."  Philippians 1:6 NIV