Monday, March 06, 2006
March 7th Matthew 4
Go ahead and look first at Matthew 4 . See how God speaks to you individually. Then come back, if you wish, and see what God has put in my mind/heart.
Key Verse(s): Matthew 4:8-10
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
Title: Would I Accept this Faustian Bargain?
Observation: The question has been asked by countless philosophers as well as the tv show Happy Days (among others), “Would you trade your soul for total power in this world?” Jesus responds to this question, phrased in a slightly different way by saying, “what good is it to inherit the world and to lose you soul?”
Most of us don’t get propositioned by the devil, but some married men do get propositioned by a local waitress. Many times in our life we will get the opportunity for lust, power, or position if we will turn our backs on God and take advantage of the situation. While in the abstract selling your soul for a bonus or promotion at work seems like a very bad deal, in the midst of temptation we think we can get away with it, we can have both.
But we can’t. While God will not abandon us because we have sinned, our spiritual lives take a major hit when we compromise what we know is right. Our careers, marriages, and families can take a major hit when we take the “shortcut” of immorality. And once we “get away” with something once, we are more or less like a ticking time bomb ready to explode as we succumb to temptation again and again and are led away from the soul nurturing intimate relationship with God that we need to have. We place ourselves further and further away from the one who can give us the power to resist temptation.
Even for the initial temptation, to resist we have to be firmly rooted in Christ. We are for the most part weak characters (I am) and we need God’s strength for our reputations, marriages, and families to flourish over the long haul. We need to rest, both physically and spiritually, in order to face the temptations we will face. And the better we do, I believe, the more likely Satan will up the ante and give us greater temptations to fight with. We should never, ever, believe that we have arrived and can stand on our own power.
Application: I will turn my time and attention on the Lord Jesus Christ who refreshes and energizes me and allows me to be his disciple. I will become intimately connected with Him through prayer and scripture study, so that I might stand the temptations I will face tomorrow and in the future, so that I may be faithful with what God has already entrusted me with, and what God will entrust me with.
Prayer: Lord, help me to be faithful. Give me a heart to seek you, to seek you alone for the strength and conviction I need. Bring people in my life to love me and encourage me in the faith. Help me to teach my son about following you and standing firm in the temptations that will come his way.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
