Saturday Reading: Matthew 4:1-10
Key Verse: Matthew 4:10
10 Then Jesus said to him, Go, Satan! For it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve."
Devotion:
If ever there were a lesson for us to remember it is this one where Christ was tempted by Satan. No matter what Satan threw at Christ He was able to quote scripture to knock him back down again. If we are willing to stand by God’s Word in that same manner then we do not have anything to fear. But we do have to be careful in the way we go about things – far too often we go forward in our own strength thinking that God is going to come to our rescue no matter what... Well, Jesus did not presume to have God’s backing for His own safety. He would not jump off the spire just to test to see whether God would send angels to catch Him because that would have been provoking God into an answer. We need to be patient in waiting for our answers from God!
He has given us His Word so that we can find out those answers. We have His Word so that we can find His guidance. If He had wanted us to know everything from the beginning then He would have given us that knowledge. Instead He has given us the choice as to which way we want to approach things. He has given us the choice to freely follow Him and to depend on Him. Just as we must not provoke God into doing our bidding, we must not provoke Him into giving us answers. We have His complete Word from which we are able to learn all we need to know – but we are the ones who have to get to grips with our bibles and learn what it is He wants us to know!
And then we must never assume that God is going to glorify anything that we do because we serve Him and not the other way round. He is our Master, our King and our Saviour. We need to trust in Him and Him alone. There must never be any other god before Him and we must never lift anything up in stead of Him. All glory and honour be to Him and Him alone.
Points to Ponder:
What would be your weakest temptation?
Are you seeking guidance from God’s Word?
