Friday... He will return.

Luke 4:13 (NLT), "When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity."

Friday... He will return.

Over in Luke 4 he says in verse 1 (NLT), "Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry." And when he was hungry was a great time for the devil to tempt Jesus.

My Temptation

Now as you would suppose, Jesus handled the temptation. Yes he was filled with the Holy Spirit but he also was hungry, so the devil wasn't successful at this time. But verse 13 says, "When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came." In other words, he will return.

Yes, it always feels so good when we handle a temptation moment but this is important for us to see, he will return at an opportune moment. If you read on you will read about the night before Jesus was going to face Calvary he spend time in praying in great agony. It seems that he was going through a time of temptation by the devil on his human side. Satan saw this as an opportune moment.

Now Solomon over in his book of Proverbs in 11:2 (AMP) says "When pride comes [boiling up with an arrogant attitude of self-importance] then comes dishonor and shame. but when the humble [the teachable who have learned to walk humbly with God] there is wisdom and soundness of mind."

Let's says we have an area that we are always fighting temptation and we know that we are weak but let's say that we have handled it by self-control. We congratulate ourselves. This pride comes boiling up with an arrogant attitude of self-important and the devil steps back waiting for an opportune moment. Our pride says we've got this handled but the devil knows he still has a chance because we are handling it on our own.

Now God sees that when we have humbly learned to walk dependent on him these are teachable moments. Yes the devil will be back but our humble dependence on wisdom and soundness of mind from God knows we can't handle it alone. But we have God. We are humbly dependent on him.

Satan knows there will be more opportune moments and probable success if we in pride are handling it alone.

Verse 3 says, "The integrity and moral courage of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them."

Yes the devil will be back. He also knows our weakness.

Back to Luke 4. In verses 42-44 (NLT) it says, "Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave. But he replied, 'I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns too, because that is why I was sent.' So he continued to travel around, preaching in synagogues throughout Judea." The devil was tempting him to get off track but Jesus knew why God has sent him to earth. "I must... so he continued."

Yes the devil will return but we don't need to handle life alone. Let's learn to humbly walk with God and his plan for our life. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute.

Proverbs 19:2 (NLT), "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute. This time of the year is so exciting. We get our paycheck from work and then we head to the store or Amazon and buy and buy and buy all those presents and then our check is gone Proverbs 19:2 (NLT) says, "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." But buying gifts can be so much fun and seeing how happy they are when opening those presents makes us feel so good. But then verse 3 says, "People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then they are angry at the Lord." Now for some that is their life. They get money and they spend it on their wants with no thought of what needs to be paid. An important lesson that we have learned is just because you have money in the bank doesn't mean you must spend it. But our enthusiasm takes over. But the problem is when it is gone and there is no money to pay th...

Today's Beginning

Search This Blog