Your Devotion Will Be Tested

We live today in a church culture that is comfortable. When asked how we are we don’t say like the world, “I’m fine” but WE SAY, “I’m blessed.” It is accurate to say that when we came up from the waters of baptism God our Father spoke over us just as He did over Jesus, “This IS MY SON in whom I am well pleased!”

Why should I be so confident of God's love for me? Because the word says God the Father has ‘qualified us’ to share in the inheritance of the Son according to Colossians chapter 2. The Word and the Spirit confirm for us that we are the children of God!

Sadly, our excitement can be short-lived lived and we can too easily sink into a very comfortable or natural existence. But God who is rich in mercy is calling us higher! This is why directly after Jesus’ identity is declared the word of God says the Spirit leads Him into the wilderness to be tested.

The word tested I believe in this context is synonymous with the word, “developed.” We are tested because God wants to develop our character to be obedient in the face of any temptation or trial.

Listen to the word of the Lord…. I will comment as we go along in italics

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

Notice that the devil waits to tempt until Jesus is ‘hungry.’ We cannot expect the temptations that God desires us to pass to be placed during times when we are strong. No, no! The enemy is crafty and he will wait until you are ‘hungry’ and attempt to fill that hunger with sin, fear, and compromise. Jesus was tempted but did not turn…

3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

Jesus fights with the Word of God. This is key for us when our devotion is tempted. If we attempt to fight with our own strength we will fail ten out of ten times. But, if we fight with the sword of the Spirit, the powerful word of the living God then the devil is stopped in his tracks and he must re-adjust his approach.

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands, they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

Keep in mind that Jesus displayed His personal trust in the Word when He passed the first test. Now, the enemy uses this against him in attempting to deceive Jesus to use the word of God improperly. Simply, to ‘test’ God by using the word out of context.

7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

Jesus shows that our trust in God is what the word produces. We cannot slap verses together and make them mean what we want them to mean. The devil invites Jesus to leap off a building to cause God to ‘prove His word.’ This is not the proper use of the word. We can pray everything we see the Lord say He wants for us. Freedom from sin, joyful communion, healing from sickness, redeemed integrity, fruitfulness in relationships and finances etc. What we must avoid is importing desire and attempting to ‘make it happen’ through repetition of the word. This will produce nothing and Jesus explains is offensive to God.

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

The last test is so powerful and I believe this is the key test for us. As Jon Foreman says, “Love is the final fight.”

Jesus demands complete surrender. Anything else is some watered-down version of the gospel. The gift is of salvation is the free gift that costs us everything because when Jesus died on that cross He invited us to come and die with Him.

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Matthew 16:25

When the devil showed Jesus the Kingdoms of the world he was effectively inviting Jesus into the same delusion he has been stuck in for millennia. It’s the delusion that something created could be more satisfying than the Creator.

Said another way, the devil loved himself more than he loved God. The problem with this equation is it results in total depravity because God is love. When the devil chose to ‘ascend’ himself he missed that rejecting love will turn you into something else altogether.

Your devotion will be tested. Why? Because God saved us and now we have another shot at loving God well. That’s literally the whole message. Jesus saves sinners so He, The Father, and the Spirit can finally share their beauty and glory with their creation. We respond with love because God has first loved us.

So, next time you are hungry and your flesh says, “hey wouldn’t it be nice if…” stop yourself and remember and speak these words.

“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

Why is this so vital? Because now we, the crucified ones, live not by this world’s standards but by,

…every word that proceeds from the mouth of God