Part 2
Ok let's just jump right into part 2. The Bible records three temptations that the devil used against Jesus. The first two involve him trying to get Jesus to prove that He is who He said He is. He starts off both temptations with "If You are the Son of God…do this". Which is exactly what I had been doing to God. I was doing exactly what Jesus reminded Satan that he wasn't supposed to be doing, i.e. "Putting the Lord My God to the test". I had been saying "If You are God… do this" or "If Your Word is really true, things should be different". Do you know how hard it is to swallow that you have been acting like Satan? I'll give you a hint: It starts with an H and ends with a HARD! But at the same time and in a weird way, it was somewhat relieving because it made me realize that God does not have to prove Himself to me in order for Him to still be God! So, even though it took my sin in order to bring me to the place of that realization, I'm so grateful that God did bring me there! Once I recognized all this that was going on, my eyes were opened to even more! There are so many parallels in this lesson to what has been going on in my life! It's crazy! Ok next thing. Like we already established, as the devil was tempting Jesus in these two situations, he was trying to make Him prove that He was the Son of God. The lesson says that he was trying to create doubts about God's voice, even though God had already said of Jesus, "This is my Son, whom I love, and with Him I am well pleased." And he's been doing the same thing to me! Even though God had seriously proven to me in the previous months that I'm His child, that He loves me, that He is pleased with me and still proves these things by being so gracious to me, Satan has been trying to create doubts in my mind about whether it's all really true! Crafty little joker. Anyways, Jesus responded the right way. I didn't. But now I know exactly what to do next time! I knew what to do before, but there's just something about having a tangible example of Jesus's response that gives me the enthusiasm to respond correctly. I'm going to do what Jesus did and respond with "It is written" (In other words, actually believe what the Bible says, no matter what and even if things don't make sense to me.) "God has promised us and His Words are final and sufficient."
Satan's second temptation is typical of what he does to me on a regular basis. He used the Word to try to prove his point. He quoted scripture! He does that to me so often! He'll take a little bit of truth and twist it just enough or present it out of context to where it contradicts what God actually intended but still keeps enough truth in it to fool me. He is so manipulative. Praise God that He showed me (yet again) the error of my ways and the lies that the devil was telling me.
I know it was long but I learned so much from this portion of scripture and from this web lesson. I love when I've been waiting for an answer to something and God finally allows me to see some sense in it all. I'm not sure all the reasons why these dry, desert-like times are necessary, but if this is what it takes to prove to God that I'll love Him and be faithful to Him, then I'm willing to go through it.
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