Pastor’s Bible Reading Schedule: Numbers 32-34; Matthew 4
Devotional Thought:
This chapter is a great chapter for teaching us about handling temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Temptation is common to every man. We often think that what we are going through, no one has ever been through before. We feel that no one else faces this level of temptation or trial; however, God says that temptations are common to men everywhere. God also promises with every temptation there is a way of escape. The way of escape is to follow the example of how Jesus defeated temptation. He quoted scripture! In verse 4, Jesus was tempted in the area of the flesh. He had been 40 days without food and Satan tempts Him to turn the stones into bread. Jesus answered, “…It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Just as Christ did not live to please His flesh neither are we to do so. We, like Jesus, ought to live to do the will of our Heavenly Father. Then Satan took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Temple and tempted him in the area of pride. Should He prove His power, position, and pride by doing something foolish just to exalt Himself? Jesus’ response to Satan was “…It is written again, Thou shalt not temp the Lord thy God.” (vs. 7) Just as Christ did not do things to exalt Himself, neither should we seek to do things that bring glory to ourselves. Jesus came to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. He came to serve and to exalt His Father. The last area of temptation was when Satan took Jesus up to a high mountain and offered Him everything His eyes could see, if He would just bow down to him. How arrogant of Satan to offer the Creator of the world anything. However, Jesus would not be tempted with satisfying the lust of the eyes, but rather responded, “…Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (vs. 10) How we as Christians fail at this temptation. The world has offered so much and bombards us with advertisements, opportunities, and availabilities of sin. Too many Christians have chosen to give their allegiance and worship to something other than the Lord our God. There is the god of money, prestige, sports, entertainment, etc. so many things trying to distract us from giving our lives to the worship of the Lord our God.
The lesson that seems so obvious is the importance memorizing scripture in order to defeat temptation when it comes. Jesus used the word of God to defeat Satan. Are you in the habit of memorizing scripture? Do you memorize specific verses in the areas of your weakness? What verses do you quote every day? If we are going to live victorious over sin, we must be willing to memorize scripture. If we fail to have a plan, we plan to fail in the area of temptation.
Personal Requests:
• Lord, please help me to be disciplined in the area of memorizing scripture. It is so easy to get lazy in this area, and yet you have made its importance very clear.
• Lord, thank you for your example of living out the principles of scripture. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
• Lord, thank you for reminding me that Satan cannot win as long as I am yielded to your control. I am thankful for the confidence your victory gives to me.
• Lord, please help me to memorize the verses I need in order to live victorious over temptation.