Tempting

Genesis 5-7, Matthew 3:7-4:11, Psalm 3, Proverbs 1:10-19

“My Son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them…These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves!” (Proverbs 1:10,18 TNIV).

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1 TNIV).

Can you imagine how Jesus felt? He went to see John and was baptized. When He came out of the water, the Holy Spirit came down on Him and Father God blessed Him for everyone to hear. Everybody knew who His Father was and that His Father was proud of Him. It is right after this that the devil comes along and tries to entice Jesus to sin. Nothing like breaking the 10 Commandments. He tries to get Jesus to doubt that He is Father God’s Son, that Father God really loves Him and is proud of Him and to trust Satan rather than His Father. In other words, Satan tries to steal the blessing Jesus just received from His Father. But Jesus knew that Satan’s ways only lead to self-defeat.

Genesis says that God created us in His image. We are His children. He loves us and wants to give us an amazing life with Him forever. Satan will come to try steal this blessing from us. He will try to convince us that his ways are better, more fun, or will have a better payoff. He may even try to use God’s own words to convince us. But by spending time with God and reading the Bible, we will learn to resist the devil and keep our blessing, like Jesus did.

Father God, thank You for being our father and calling us Your children. Thank You for loving us so much that You don’t let us go easily. Remind us of the blessing of Your love and help us to believe it, especially when the devil wants to steal it from us and take us with him down his road of self-destruction. Amen.