Sunday 17 Aug 2014

August 17: Matthew 4:1-11

Key Verse: Matthew 4:11
Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Devotion:
What did Jesus do in the desert? What was He alone in the desert for? Why open Himself up to the temptation? These are all the questions that we come up with because we do not fully understand the ways of God; we do not have the task of finding out all these questions but rather believing what Jesus has done and trusting Him for further teaching. We do not have to figure out why Jesus did this or why it was allowed. What we do need to do is to believe that this is an account of what did happen and that Jesus was able to reject Satan by using God and His Word.

Jesus was a human being and as such did not have power over Satan in His human form. But what He did have was God and His protection. We too have God and we too have His protection. We too can reject Satan; but it has to be our choice to do that, not that we have the power, but that Christ has already done that for us. We have this knowledge that Christ has defeated Satan by doing exactly what he did on the cross and rising out of the grave afterward. We know that nothing is impossible for God.

Jesus came back to give the apostles power over evil spirits and the like because He left the Holy Spirit with them. We have been offered the Holy Spirit if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour which means that we will be able to turn away from evil as well. Many times in our lives it is because we are stuck in our ways and do not call on God as we should be doing. Jesus took Himself out of His human life and stayed alone with God in the desert until the time was right. We should be willing to go that extra mile to be alone with God and His people until the time is right.

Through this act of going out into the desert Jesus teaches us that we should be willing to rely on God’s Word for answers to things in our lives. We do not have to try and figure out every new thing in our lives without God; He wants to be with us every step of the way and He can do that through the Bible. When we are willing to listen to what God teaches us through our bibles we will get answers for many things we come up against; but we need to trust God and His Word.

Points to Ponder:
Do you trust other people?

Do you trust God’s Word?