“Then Jesus was led
by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Matthew 4:1
“…to be tempted by
the devil.”
Surely God could have
kept His Son from being tempted by the devil, right?
Of course He could
have.
So why didn’t He?
Hebrews 4:15 supplies
the answer for us:
“For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who
has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
Temptation is not
sin.
Jesus was tempted in
every way, just as you and I are.
Jesus never
surrendered to those temptations.
When I come to God
and pour out my heart in prayer I am coming to one who knows what it is to struggle.
He knows what it is
to face temptation.
He knows what I am
facing.
Our God is no ‘prima
donna’.
We can never point an
accusing finger at God and say:
“You just don’t know
what it is like!”
Because the truth is,
He does.
And He put Himself in
that position for you and me.
That is the mercy,
the compassion of God revealed in a very concrete way.
He is not a “Do as I
say, not as I do” God.
Does that strengthen
you?
It should reinforce
our faith in moments of temptation.
Jesus leads the way
for us out of temptation and out of the wilderness we find ourselves in.
Are you joining us for the next 40 days in reading Matthew 4-7 each day?
No comments:
Post a Comment