Thursday 20 Nov 2014

November 20: Luke 4:1-13

Key Verse: Luke 4:13
Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

Devotion:
Where we go with God, you can bet that the evil one is going to be following along waiting for a moment to try and trip us up. Listening to God does not always mean that we are going to be free from sin, free from temptations and free from trouble! The devil is going to be there waiting until we are weak or waiting until we make a mistake so that he can pounce and try to get us thinking about stuff that we should not be thinking of.

Sometimes that is going to cost us because we will give in and go off the rails for a while. Sometimes we will be strong like Jesus was here and lift up the Word of God in the devils face to fend him off. Sometimes we will not see anything coming and we will only realise what has happened after the fact. But every time we can be sure that God is going to be with us and we need to depend on Him for protection and wisdom to handle the situations.

Sometimes it is not going to be the wilderness that we are trapped in but the lives that we lead right here and now. I know that because I see that happening in my life from time to time. I certainly am not as strong as Christ and not as ready to handle things as He did. I often find myself on my knees asking for that advice to get me out of a hole; so don’t think that you are the only one this happens to!

But notice the outcome. Christ was able to use the scriptures to push Satan away. We too can use our bibles to push him away. Just as we may be able to push a bully away for a while, we can push the devil away for a while. That does not mean we have won the battle because he is going to go away and wait for another moment when he can come and try it all over again. That is why we need to know the bible, so we can be more prepared for the next time!

Points to Ponder:
Do you read your bible each day?

Are you preparing for battle?