Sunday 9 Mar 2014

Sunday Reading: Matthew 4:1-4

Key Verse: Matthew 4:1
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Devotion:
Each time I read these verses I start to think why on earth would Jesus go out into the desert to allow Himself to be tempted by the devil! I’m sure many people could write books about this subject but I would like to believe that this was God giving the devil another chance at turning his life around. I know we are told that Satan has turned his back on God and that he is going to end up bound in hell, but our God is also just.

How many times have you been given one more chance after you thought that everything around you has been broken for sure? How many times have you looked for one more chance at things? How many times have you broken a friendship and realised that you made a huge mistake and looked for some way of fixing it? And then we should also look at the other end of the stick and think about whether we would be willing to forgive one more time or whether we would want the other person back. Or we could look at it from the side of could we actually change enough to fix things?

The first thing that the devil did was to tempt Jesus into abusing His powers for Himself or for selfish reasons. From that it was clear that the devil was not going to change his ways and that God would have to carry out what He had said. There has got to be a time when “enough” or “time” is called. But the person making that call has got to be absolutely sure that that is the only course of action.

Each of us will have to face times like this when we have to make that final decision and it is times like those that we need to remember because God has already said that He will be calling time soon. He has given us plenty of warning and He has made sure that we have been given plenty of time to repent as well. God is just. That means that He will do what He has said and that we need to be very aware of that! But also be very aware of His love for us and how much He does want to forgive us before He calls time.

Points to Ponder:
How many times do you forgive others?

Do you expect God to forgive you?